ANOTHER STAB OF THE CONSTITUTION

Rachel E. Barkow states that,"We are a nation dedicated to liberty and equality. So it is a particularly tragic irony that America leads the world in imprisonment and that a large proportion of those serving sentences are people of color".

this quote gives us a clear view of american injustice and defiance of the constitution.the american prison system has majority of African  Americans incarcerated as compared to other races.As a nation of equality and dedicated to liberty,this must not happen ,however we see it on daily basis how the judiciary institution append different sentences for people of color and Caucasian whom have committed the same crime. African american get longer sentences with ridiculous probation periods as compared to white people.this is not the american we all inspire or try to portray.

this quote caught my attention because i see a lot of people of color in jail for petty crime or misdemeanor acts.they receive unusually long jail sentences which in most cases should be a fine or warning.certain counties pass legislation targeting African american norms and culture.recently an american american got 12 years prison sentence for switching her zip code to get her child in a good school but a white woman who paid bribe to get her child accepted in University of Southern California gets 9 months probation.this  injustice and inequality that exists in american judiciary must be fixed and reformed.  

CONSTITUTION AND FEDERALIST

"Notes on the State of Virginia," p. 195. "All the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judiciary, result to the legislative body. The concentrating these in the same hands, is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation, that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. One hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as oppressive as one. Let those who doubt it, turn their eyes on the republic of Venice. As little will it avail us, that they are chosen by ourselves. An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.
For this reason, that convention which passed the ordinance of government, laid its foundation on this basis, that the legislative, executive, and judiciary departments should be separate and distinct, so that no person should exercise the powers of more than one of them at the same time.

This quote from the federalist 57  talks about how one person must not hold all the power.the founding fathers were very much against authoritarian or dictatorship rule.they set up these different institutions to moderate power and effect the rule of law.they wanted a system based on principles of equality that makes no one above the law.in the end its the people who have the final check on both legislative and executive branch when they vote to elect their representatives .through those selections,they also influence the potential makeup of the judiciary branch

I like this quote because the checks and balance as name suggests makes limits the powers of each branch whiles empowering them of different roles.People in power will most likely not abuse its power or turn into a dictatorship due to variance in branches.This is an important  decision to give specific powers to each branch and to ensure no one branch is too powerful than the other or control too much power.the branches must work together for the prosperity of the nation.its up to us as a generation to see that the integrity of the Constitution structure for a free society is maintained by exercising our rights to vote.this helps preserve the system of checks and balances to essential limit and balance the government
   

CITIZENSHIP AND AMERICAN IDENTITY:what is america

          We are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born, and if distinctions are to be made between us, they should rightly be on some other ground than ingenuousness. The early colonists came over with motives no less colonial than the later. They did not come to be assimilated in an American melting pot. They did not come to adopt the culture of the American Indian. They had not the smallest intention of ‘giving themselves without reservation’ to the new country. They came to get freedom to live as they wanted to. They came to escape from the stifling air and chaos of the old world; they came to make their fortune in a new land. They invented no new social framework. Rather they brought over bodily the old ways to which they had been accustomed. Tightly concentrated on a hostile frontier, they were conservative beyond belief. Their pioneer daring was reserved for the objective conquest of material resources. In their folkways, in their social and political institutions, they were, like every colonial people, slavishly imitative of the mother country. So that, in spite of the ‘Revolution,’ our whole legal and political system remained more English than the English, petrified and unchanging, while in England law developed to meet the needs of the changing times.
        This quote by Randolph Bourne summaries the concept of immigration.Immigrants from European countries who settled here either through exploration,wars or persecution did not discard their cultures or norms.they rather integrated it with the already existing society.the american culture basically was assimilated by these foreigners from Europe.It can be read that while European culture changed,american society was resistant to changes that was brought forth by immigrants from other continents other than European. american culture was basically an European culture.the american identity must therefore be fluid and adaptive to changing times.immigrants must not be coerced to assimilate the borrowed norms of the colonials but rather embraced.
      I chose this quote because it speaks on the recent immigrant-phobia of america.it must be known that European settlers were not required to speak native language nor adhere to traditions and culture.however, they allowed the freedom as immigrant to express their foreign norms without any threat or fear from natives.however recent immigrants are seen as threat to american identity which was the identity of old Anglo-Saxon .the requirement to speak English only enhances communication but forcibly asking immigrants to discard culture and take up the norms of the new world is rather un- american. one american identity is freedom and it implies that one can do anything as far as it doesn't interfere with others.identity in current american is color,race,income and many superficial indices.we have lost the appreciation of  a deeper identity that manifests itself through a person's character.

TOTALISTARIANISM

Sheldon Wolin states that "Representative institutions no longer represent voters. Instead, they have been short-circuited, steadily corrupted by an institutionalized system of bribery that renders them responsive to powerful interest groups whose constituencies are the major corporations and wealthiest Americans. The courts, in turn, when they are not increasingly handmaidens of corporate power, are consistently deferential to the claims of national security. Elections have become heavily subsidized non-events that typically attract at best merely half of an electorate whose information about foreign and domestic politics is filtered through corporate-dominated media. Citizens are manipulated into a nervous state by the media’s reports of rampant crime and terrorist networks, by thinly veiled threats of the Attorney General and by their own fears about unemployment. What is crucially important here is not only the expansion of governmental power but the inevitable discrediting of constitutional limitations and institutional processes that discourages the citizenry and leaves them politically apathetic".

The author makes valid statement of our current times.the branches of government such as the congress and senate are lobbyist for mega rich companies that seek only their self interest and growth.the passage seeks to explain how dysfunctional the institutions that was created to help in democracy are in lieu a force of suppressing for the voters.although elections are held but media, technology and foreign influence dictate the the results as far as rigging elections through technology hacks and other means.the voters social problems are ignored always for the co-operations that donated to get them elected.hence the people feel voiceless and powerless because their means of getting their problems solved has been corrupted.the media which plays a major role in peoples lives are also interest groups that seek their own agenda.

I chose this reading because this passage portrays the current political environment in the country. people of power does almost everything to retain power and votes almost on political lines.the current issues of this country including waves of anti-abortion laws  in states although federally its allowed speaks for itself.the lack of respect for institutions that must enforce the constitution is virtually  powerless as leaders pit one law enforcing agency  against the other.political leaders join with media to sow discord among voters on race,color and sex.i believe this government first efforts must to bring its people together to foster unity for growth .Currently most of the issues in this country has all the attributes of an inverted totalistarism,with fox news on the far right and cnn on the left.the leader of the free world must not align itself with a media house and castigate institutional leaders for either having a brown skin or been a woman.it must not pass laws based on religion but rather the listen to the voice of its people