P Gov Unit 5:  Contemporary American Politics
SUPPLEMENTAL
Senator Bernie Sanders on Income Inequality
Libertarians on Income Inequality
Bill O'Reilly on Income Inequality
Senator Elizabeth Warren on Income Inequality and Min Wage
Douglas Amy: Government Is Good
Dennis Prager: Big Gov means Smaller Citizens
Penn Jillette on Libertarianism
A LEAP INTO THE POSSIBLE
REAGANISM
The Failure of Antigovernment Conservatism
The Left Is Wrong
My Big Fat Government Takeover
Poverty Debate: Left V Right
Do We Want a More Equal Society? 3 2009
How to Approach Income Inequality 2 2007
Too Little of a Good Thing 12 2009
Yes Obama Does Believe in Big Gov 3 2009
Defense of Sotomayor 5 2009
Firefighter Case Racial Politics 7 2009
Judge Sotomayors Identity Problem 5 2009
Do We Still Need Race Conscious Remedies 7 2009
Tax Debate WSJ v New Yorker 10 2007
What's Behind Democratic and Republican Party ID?
Is Econ Equality Worth Loss of Prosperity 8 2009
The Lefts Inequality Obsession 7 2007
Whats Wrong with America 2007
What is the Foundation of Your Economic Beliefs?
270 to Win
Interactive Map of Electoral Votes
Let us not be afraid to help each other—let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. -FDR

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.  -Ronald Reagan.

Click here to see where you place on the political spectrum, and which political candidates are closest to your beliefs
Conservative view of Min Wage
Debunking White Privilege
CNN Don Lemon
White Privilege
Ben Shapiro rejects White Privilege concept
ABORTION: links to research sources:
JUST FACTS has an excellent summary of the facts about abortion in America.
WESTSIDE PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTER has detailed information about fetal development, and offers to help pregnant women make informed decisions.
NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE COUNCIL is a leading Pro-Life group.
NATIONAL ABORTION RIGHTS ACTION LEAGUE is a leading Pro-Choice group.
Global Warming Debate

Global Warming:
Cooler Heads
Global Warming Debate Assignment
COLLECTION OF PRESS REPORTS, EDITORIALS, AND ESSAYS ON GLOBAL WARMING
DATA ON PAST ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGES
New gun laws in New York State
Five facts about guns, schools, and violence
ABC This Week gun control debate
CNN Piers Morgan gun control debate
GUN CONTROL DEBATES YOUTUBE WARS
GUN CONTROL DEBATE
In_defense_of_Obamacare_10_2013
Obamacare_Backfires on both Sides 10 2013
Obamacare_Laid_Bare_10_2013
HEALTH CARE READINGS:
LINK
LINK
LINK
CLIMATE DEPOT

WATTS up with that?

ICECAP

Scientist Petition Against Alarmism
US EPA: climate

NASA: climate

TRANSCRIPT:
An Inconvenient Truth

IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The 11th Hour
Documentary
Not Evil Just Wrong
Documentary
Watch Global Warming Swindle online
Thomas Sowell on Inequality  6:07
Wealth Inequality in America
Income Inequality is Good
Thomas Sowell on Inequality  2:22
Obama on Income Inequality
Equal Outcomes should be the Goal.
The Unfairness of Equal Outcomes

WATCH:
- Jonathan Haidt's view on the roots of Left and Right
Larry Elder Rejects "Systemic Racism"
MSNBC Everyday Racism in America
BBC Trayvon Matins Legacy and BLM
MSNBC What are BLM Demands?
Thomas Sowell on Fallacies of Race
EXTRA CREDIT
Read or watch any resources on this webpage, then write a summary and reaction of at least one page.

Official sites of the Democratic and Republican Parties
PERSPECTIVES FROM THE LEFT:
The Young Turks
PERSPECTIVES FROM THE RIGHT:
Prager U
UNIT 5 DISTANCE LEARNING ASSIGNMENTS:

PENNINO EMAIL:  apennino@shufsd.org

All work for this class will be now posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Complete the following assignments at your own pace.

BOOK RETURNS:
Periods 3 and 8: return 1984 and Brave New World at WW when you return all books for classes, any weekday 6/1-12, 8:AM to 2:PM.  Book drop off is at the PAC entrance.

CLASS PARTICIPATION: After you read or watch videos, email me questions or comments.  I hope to hear from you.

6. POSTED 6/4
following up on the last post, here are recent clips providing views from the left and right about what's going on. 

FROM THE LEFT: Obama: Broad Coalition Of Today's Protests Different Than 1960s Protests

FROM THE RIGHT: Bob Woodson: Democrats Blame Racism To Deflect Attention From Falures Of Cities They've Run For 50 Years

The following videos are older and can provide context about how people interpret recent events very differently.

From the left:
CNN Don Lemon: White Privilege 2012
BBC Trayvon Matins Legacy and BLM 2017
MSNBC What are BLM Demands? 2015

From the right:
Debunking White Privilege 2016
Larry Elder Rejects "Systemic Racism" 2016
Larry Elder: Black America Needs Fathers 2020

Here are articles on studies about crime and police use of force.  I tried to avoid biased sources:

White police officers are not more likely to shoot minorities |  MSU 2019
What the data say about police shootings | Nature Magazine 2019
White cops not likelier to shoot dead African-Americans than black ones are | Economist 2019
4 News fact check on crime stats by race 2014

realclearpolitics.com is doing a great job, in my opinion, of providing perspectives from opposing views onthe crisis going on right now.  I hope you continue to check in on this source.

THERE WILL BE NO TEST FOR THIS UNIT.  Your assessment, if you choose to do it, is for extra credit due by 6/9.  Assessment: email me or post a doc to google classroom discussing your thoughts on any of the following:
A. the differences between left and right in America. 
B. the social and political ramifications of government responses to COVID 19.
C. the current crisis: police, race, crime, and protests.

There will be no more assignments.  I will post some a few concluding words Friday or Monday.

S/H
P

5. POSTED 6/2
Seniors.  We are living through historic and very troubling times.  I hope I can help you understand all of this a little better.  We are ultimately in control of how we act and how we think.  Getting all the relevant facts before coming to conclusions is as important as ever.  As you keep informed on current events, please always remember one of my most important lessons: get different perspectives.  Try to understand opposing points of view.

The killing of George Floyd by now- former officer Derek Chauvin was an abomination. Chauvin acted contrary to his training: no officer should ever endanger an arrested person's neck, and Floyd was already in handcuffs and subdued, so any further use of force would be wrong even if it was harmless.  The anger and protests that resulted are supported by politicians and media on both the left and the right.   Both sides asked how this could happen, why the other three officers stood by and failed to save Floyd, and why it took several days to arrest Chauvin.  But now division overshadows unity.  Three groups can now be seen in city streets across the country: peaceful protesters, looters, and violent radical extremists.  Most on the left seem to be downplaying or even justifying the second two groups, while some on the left are claiming the radicals are actually white supremacists.  Most on the right are supporting peaceful protest but condeming the violent elements and the looters, and demand stronger efforts to restore law and order.  

Both the left and the right agree that racism is evil, poverty must be combated, and police must not abuse their power.  But the left and right have very different views on the long term causes of the riots you are now watching on the news.  There is a sense of hopelessness and injustice among many in minority and lower income American urban communities.  The left sees systemic or institutional racism as the top problem for "black and brown people" in America, explaining  racial income and employment gaps, divergent rates of arrest based on race, and police brutality.  The right sees urban minority cultures that promote the breakdown of the family, especially of responsible fatherhood, as the main causes of disproportionate poverty, crime, and hopelessness in those communities.   

TASKS: Review page 13 in your Unit 5 Notes.  Then watch these recent short videos on the crisis in our cities.  Thursday I will post some other videos to provide more background.

Fox News Sean Hannity: The Chaos Needs to End
CNN Anderson Cooper calls out Trump: 'Who's the thug here?'

4. WORK POSTED 5/28:
Review pages 10-11 in your Unit 5 Notes. Next let's look at short videos to highlight differences over equality, and over the size and role of government.  Notice how these questions relate back to differences over responsibility.

EQUALITY DEBATES:
For the Sowell videos I recommend you fast forward to the minute noted.

WATCH LIB VIEW: Senator Bernie Sanders on Income Inequality 2012
WATCH LIB VIEW:President Obama on Income Inequality
WATCH CONS VIEW: Thomas Sowell on Inequality  6:07
WATCH CONS VIEW: Thomas Sowell on Inequality  2:22
WATCH LIBERTARIAN VIEW: Stossel 2019: Inequality Myths

Equality debates closer look: the minimum wage debate:
WATCH LIB VIEW: Sen. Warren on Inequality and Min Wage 2014 (5:44 stop)
WATCH CONS VIEW of Min Wage

SIZE OF GOVERNMENT Opposing views:
WATCH LIB VIEW: Douglas Amy: Government Is Good
WATCH CONS VIEW: Dennis Prager: Big Gov means Smaller Citizens

3. WORK POSTED TUESDAY 5/26:
Review pages 4,5,and 9 in your Unit 5 Notes. The divide on so many issues can be understood in the context of responsibility.  Gun debates?  Conservatives talk about the right to bear arms in the context of taking personal responsibility for one's own safety and freedom; liberals emphasize that this is mostly society's responsibility, that's why we have police.  Poverty?  Conservatives emphasize the opportunities that are out there (except during covid shutdowns!) if one is detetermined to succeed in life; liberals stress the difficulties of finding high income work and the need for government to do more to help. 

Here are a few videos to show how different attitudes about responsibility are often at the heart of left - right debates:

Democrat Elizabeth Warren 2011: no one got rich on their own
Republican Mitt Romney political ad 2012

This next video gets the Pennino Purple Award for presenting both sides fairly.  Notice the debate over government paid college tuition also has a responsibility aspect: should society pay for everyone's college tuition, or should that be our own responsibility?

Above the Noise: Is Free College As Good As It Sounds?

Always remember that liberals and conservatives usually agree on the problems:  crime is bad, safety is important, good paying jobs and a strong economy are important,  education is important, college is too expensive.  But they usually have different views on the solutions, and even on the causes of the problems...

2. WORK POSTED THURSDAY 5/21:

Carefully read and think about:

Unit 5 Notes: Contemporary American Politics

The big takeaways:

1. Trying to understand liberals as always favoring change and conservatives as defending the status quo does not work for contemporary American politics.

2. The most important premise or foundation for left-right differences in America is probably the degree to which one believes in mostly taking personal responsibility for one's life, or one believes that society / government should take more responsibility for one's life.  What is the most important factor determining your place in life in America today: is it things outside your control, or is it the choices you make?  If it's things outside your ability to control, then society / government should be more involved to help.  If it's the choices you make, like what you want to do in life and how hard you try, then government should protect your rights and then get out of your way...

3. The next most important premise that divides left and right is what equality should mean.  Are unequal outcomes in education, jobs, wealth, and status mostly the results of an unfair system, or are they mostly the results of different choices and abilities of individuals, or the result of reality, and therefor fair?  How equal should we be, and in what ways should we be equal?

It's advised that you write your own notes on looseleaf or type on a Word Document, but this is not required.  At the end of the unit you can email me these annotations for extra credit.

1. WORK POSTED TUESDAY 5/19:

Unit intro: take a survey.  Old school style:  Read the suvery statements, and score each one with a rating of 1 through 5.  The more points you give, the more you agree; the lower  the score, the less you agree.  Write your score for each on a piece of paper (or record them however you want).  When done with the survey, add up your score, then check to see what your score means.

Flip a coin!

Survey for HEADS.    

Survey for TAILS.

Don't look until you're done! 

Results for HEADS SURVEY

Results for TAILS SURVEY.

After youre done, take the other survey, or at least read it, you will see it is the mirror opposite.  The twin surveys, along with the coin flipping, is an effort to be fair (and the survey results were meant to be funny).  It's possible your score might not be exactly opposite if you take both surveys; the way surveys are worded can change their results.  No survey is perfect.  Never fully trust any survey!  However this task will give you a reasonable idea of your basic leanings as we start the unit...
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LEFT AND RIGHT IN AMERICA TODAY?
TAKE THE QUIZ
P GOV UNIT 5 NOTES PDF