Maddie's Take On Politics

What’s Happening Here? What’s Happening There?  For centuries, there has been controversy surrounding immigration and border control. Should the United State's border be open or closed to immigrants? Some think that our boarders should be open and the country should welcome any immigrant seeking asylum. According to Joseph Carens from the UC San Diego Department of Philosophy, "all humans are created equal, there is a duty to respect rights and freedoms of all people, discrimination on the basis of race, religion and gender is wrong, among others" (King). It is his view that we as a democracy have the moral and ethical obligation to welcome immigrants. Other countries around the world have much different policies than the United States and different views on immigration.  What's asylum? Seeking asylum is when someone does not want to return to their own country because they are afraid of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particu...

(Janssen) This week I watched three really interesting and eye opening TedTalks, all centered around the issue of divisiveness in politics. One video I watched was A Republican mayor's plan to replace partisanship with policy by G.T. Bynum. Bynum argued that in order to make progress, we need to bring people together with data and facts, instead of negativity and childish contests. Another TedTalk I watched was How our friendship survives our opposing politics by Caitlin Quattromani and Lauren Arledge. In this video, these moms talked about how even though they are part of different political parties, they get along. They propose that instead of judging other peoples' differing beliefs and values, people need to not let emotions get in the way, and instead exchange dialogue to hear other points of view. The last video was  We the people, and the republic we must reclaim by Lawrence Lessig. Lessig talked about how "funders," are essentially the ones who get to choos...

The United States is a Democracy that prides itself on freedom and personal rights. My country is built largely upon the principle of the freedom of choice, which heavily reflects choosing our own leaders and other people of government. But not everyone living in the United States who is old enough actually takes advantage of this freedom. In fact, in the 2016 Presidential Election, only 56% of eligible voters cast ballots (Desilver). Although this number was higher in the 2020 Presidential Election with upwards of 70% (Thorson), for a country that prides itself on hand selecting those who make decisions for the wellbeing of its citizens, it sure has a funny way of showing it.  So how can we increase voter participation? Well that’s simple, create ways to make it easier for people to vote. One way of doing this is to automatically register people 18 year of age and over to vote. Many states have already passed the Automatic Voter Registration Policy, including 17 states and the Dis...