Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed:  “Some . . .  deny the existence of evil and others the existence of grace.  The art of  politics is to live with the reality of both.”  With this comment in mind, we take a realistic overview of American politics.  This course aims to:

• Help you understand past and present political events.
• Lay the groundwork for further study of government.
• Sharpen your thinking, writing, and speaking.

In addition to providing general background on American politics, this course also emphasizes certain themes.  One is the continuing relevance of the Declaration of Independence.  Historian Pauline Maier has called it "American Scripture," and since 1776, Americans have argued about its meaning.  Another is the central role of religion in America political life.  Tocqueville said that religion is the first of our political institutions.  We shall ponder what he meant by that.

Many of the readings are provocative.  Do not assume that your professor agrees with everything in the readings, or that you need to do so.  Feel free to challenge anything you read, but back up what you say.

Classes

Classes will include lecture and discussion.  Finish the readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings.  We shall also talk about breaking news, so you must read a good news source such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times or
ABC "The Note" (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html)

Grades

The following will make up your course grade: 

One 3-page essay	15%
One 6-page research assignment	20%
One 5-7-page paper	20%
One sit-down final	30%
Class participation  (including oral presentation)	15%

• All three papers will develop your skills in writing, research, and political analysis.  When grading, I do take the quality of writing into account, applying the standards of Strunk and White.  If you object to this approach, do not take this course – or anything else that I teach.

• The final examination will test your factual knowledge and comprehension of the readings.

• In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts and web links covering current events and basic factual information.  The final will cover this material.

• Class participation will hone your ability to think on your feet.  This grade hinges on class discussions and a brief oral presentation.  I will call on students at random, and if you often miss sessions or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer.

• As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive promptly and refrain from eating in class.

• Carefully check the due dates for papers, as well as the date of the final exam.  Arrange your schedule accordingly.  Do not plan on seeking extensions or make-up work.

• Plagiarism will mean referral to the Academic Standards Committee.

Required Books

• Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (New York: Vintage, 1989).

• James W. Ceaser and Andrew E. Busch, Red Over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics ( Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).

• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, The Federalist Papers (New York: Signet, 2003  [1788]).

• Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?  The Challenges to America's National Identity (New York:  Simon and Schuster, 2004).

• William Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th ed.  (New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1999).

• Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence, ed. J.P. Mayer (Garden City, New York:  HarperCollins, 1969 [1835/40]).  Please use this edition.  Other translations have different wording, which would cause confusion.
   

Schedule (Subject to change, with advance notice).

In addition to the readings below, I may also supply you with various handouts and Internet links.

Aug 30:  Introduction

“We’re not Spartans, we’re Americans! With a capital ‘A,’ huh? And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world!”  -- Bill Murray, in Stripes

• Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream" at http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/speeches/address_at_march_on_washington.pdf

Sept 4, 6:  Principles of the American Political Order

"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people."        -- Calvin Coolidge

• Declaration of Independence, at Hamilton, 528-532.
• Alexander Stephens, "The Corner Stone Speech," at http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=76
• Martin Luther King, “Letter from the Birmingham Jail," at http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf
• Calvin Coolidge on the Declaration at http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=41
• Fifth Lincoln-Douglas debate (excerpts) at http://govt.cmc.edu/jpitney/lincdoug.html.
• Huntington, ch. 1-4.

"The Constitution affords all citizens life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Such values must not be limited to paper, but extend to public policy. Americans of all stripes pursue the constitutional rights to earn a living wage, to organize their labor, to have equal and high-quality public education; to have universal access to health care; to have unfettered access to capital, industry and technology; to have a government which protects the needy, rather than providing for the greedy." -- Rev. Jesse Jackson

• The Constitution, at Hamilton, 542-568.
• Charles Kesler, Introduction, in Hamilton, vii-xxi.
• Hamilton, Federalist # 9, 10, 23, 47, 48, 49, 51.
• Anti-Federalist essays: 
•     Brutus #1, at http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus01.htm;
•     Federal Farmer # 1, at http://www.constitution.org/afp/fedfar01.htm

ESSAY ASSIGNED SEPTEMBER 11, DUE SEPTEMBER 20.

READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST!

Sept 18, 20:  American Character -- Service and Religion

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”  -- Not Alexis deTocqueville 

• Tocqueville, 231-245, 277-315, 442-458, 513-530.
• Huntington, ch. 5-6.
• Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, at http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html
• Wolfe on Huntington at http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501fareviewessay83311/alan-wolfe/native-son-samuel-huntington-defends-the-homeland.html;
• Wolfe-Huntington exchange at http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040901faresponse83515/samuel-p-huntington-alan-wolfe/credal-passions.html

Sept 25, 27:  Citizenship, Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

"The main civil liberty I'm looking to protect is the 'me not getting blown up' one. I don't know if it's written down anywhere in Tom Paine's crib sheets, but that's my big one." -- Dennis Miller

• Hamilton, Federalist # 84
• Huntington, ch. 7-9.

RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNED SEPT 27, DUE OCT 11

"The budget should be balanced. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt." -- Not Cicero

• Hamilton, Federalist # 39, 45, 46
• Tocqueville, 690-695.
• Take the California Budget Challenge at http://www.nextten.org/challenge/
• Clyde Wayne Crews, "Ten Thousand Commandments," 2006 ed., at http://www.cei.org/pdf/5407.pdf
• US House, Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and  Response to Hurricane Katrina, A Failure of Initiative, "Background," February 15, 2006, at  http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/15feb20061230/www.gpoaccess.gov/katrinareport/background.pdf

Oct 9, 11: Opinion and the Media

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters." -- Frederick Douglass

• Frank Newport, Lydia Saad, David Moore, “How Polls Are Conducted,” at http://media.gallup.com/PDF/FAQ/HowArePolls.pdf
• Take the “Where Do You Fit?” test at http://people-press.org/fit/
• Tocqueville, pp. 180-188, 246-261.
• Ruckus Society Media Manual, at http://www.ruckus.org/article.php?list=type&type=18 
• Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Online Papers Modestly Boost Newspaper Readership," at  http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=282 (read sections 1-6)

Oct 18:  Interest Groups

"If implemented, this agreement will do more to promote Enron's business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring of the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States ...This agreement will be good for Enron stock!!" -- Enron executive John Palmisano, on the Kyoto Protocol

• Tocqueville, 188-195, 503-528.
• Huntington, ch. 10.

Oct 23, 25: Parties and Elections I

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for, but I admire their discipline and their organization." -- Howard Dean

• Tocqueville, 174-179.
• Ceaser and Busch, ch. 1-3.
• Go to http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php and discover which federal candidates got contributions from your neighbors.

Oct 30, Nov 1: Parties and Elections II

"At the end of one of my favorite movies, `The Bridge on the River Kwai,' the doctors simply say `madness.' Just as madness was the running theme of the movie, recent public polls indicate that it aptly describes the obscene level of partisanship in American politics today." -- Donna Brazile 

• Tocqueville, 196-203.
• Ceaser and Busch, ch. 4-6.
• Michael Uhlmann, "Direct Popular Election of the President," at http://www.ashbrook.org/articles/electoralcollege-directpopular.html
• National Popular Vote -- FAQs, at http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/npv/

SHORT PAPER ASSIGNED NOV 1, DUE NOV 15

Nov 6, 8:  Congress

“If forced to tell the truth, most members of Congress would acknowledge that they did not fully or, in many cases, even partially read these bills before casting their votes." -- Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA)

• Tocqueville, 497-500
• Hamilton, Federalist # 57, 63.
• Steven S. Smith, Jason Roberts, and Ryan Vander Wielen, "The Rules of the Legislative Game, " in The American Congress, 3d. ed. , at http://congress.wustl.edu/chapter3.pdf
• Go to http://congress.indiana.edu/learn_about/launcher.htm#rep_dem, and play "How a Member Decides to Vote."
• Congressional debate transcript, TBA.

Nov 13, 15:  The Presidency and Bureaucracy

“Sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue is 18 acres of sheer utopia, and like Utopia it can be isolated from reality quickly." -- Karl Rove

• Hamilton, Federalist # 70, 71, 73
• Tocqueville, pp. 121-138.
•  Reagan, 1983 "Evil Empire" speech in Orlando   
•     Manuscript (handout)
•     Final version at http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/30883b.htm 
•     Frank Warner, "The Battle of the Evil Empire," Morning Call, March 5, 2000, at http://www.tysknews.com/Articles/empire.htm
• "The Gulf of Tonkin" at http://www.whitehousetapes.org/exhibits/tonkin/index.htm (listen to audio if possible)
• "We Have Some Planes," chapter 1 of the final report of the 9-11 Commission, at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/22jul20041130/www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/sec1.pdf

Nov 20, 22:  Judiciary

"I was convinced that the law compelled a result that I would have opposed if I were a legislator." -- Justice John Paul Stevens, explaining why he backed decisions with "unwise" outcomes.

• Hamilton, Federalist # 78.
• Tocqueville, pp. 99-105, 261-276.
• Edwards v. Aguillard (482 U.S. 578 (1987)) at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=482&invol=578.

Nov 27, 29:  Political Warfare I

"Anger is more useful than despair."-- Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Terminator 3

• Alinsky, prologue and pp. 1-97.
• Huntington, ch. 11

Dec 4, 6:  Political Warfare  II

"There are really only two mood you can rely on in life, anxiety and depression.  But the key is to choose anxiety over depression -- choose scared over blue, nervous over sleepy.  It's the more awake and so more hopeful choice." -- Peggy Noonan

• Alinsky, 98-196.

• Huntington, ch. 12.

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