Democracy In The News (2): The GOP Primaries

January 22nd, 2012 § 1 comment § permalink

Wow. Americans love democracy. Please, correct me if I’m wrong, because the following is based on a not-so-recently read “Intro to American Government” textbook. This is what I understand: Americans go to the polls all the time. There are presidential elections every four years, the House of Representatives is elected every two years, and Senators are re-elected every six years, though they do one-third at a time so that again, there are elections every two years.

They do this all over again on a state-level.

Before any of the presidential elections happen, of course, there are presidential primaries for the parties in need of a candidate. I followed the Republican Primary debates pretty closely, partly for entertainment value (Rick Perry!), and partly out of genuine interest in Republican platforms (Ron Paul!). Primaries are where Americans, in my opinion, take democracy to the extreme. Registered voters in each state vote for for their candidate of choice. Those choices are then reflected in delegates who go to the National Convention to cast their vote for the leader of their party. Is this process necessary? I’m not sure. If there’s anyone in the class who has a better understanding of American government, and why there is a three-step process in which we basically elect delegates, to elect candidates, who then run in a general election – I would love to be enlightened.

It certainly makes for interesting politics, though. This GOP race seems to change so quickly with every state primary. With a close race in Iowa between Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul, it seemed at that point to be anyone’s game. However, when Romney won by a huge margin in New Hampshire, he headed into South Carolina with a lot of momentum. Yesterday’s win for Newt Gingrich in New Hampshire, however, once again changes the game entirely. In this handy chart tracking the results of the primaries, it’s clear that Romney and Gingrich are neck and neck in projected delegates, and Gingrich has a significant lead in pledged delegates. If things stay this close it’ll be an exciting run.

Assignment (2): Links for Fellow Students

January 22nd, 2012 § 2 comments § permalink

@aviaaron: I read your intro-post (or rather, your Author page) and saw that you’re a big fan of Parks and Recreation. It is my favourite sitcom on TV right now – I think it’s so much better than a lot of the shows out there  because they manage to keep it funny while also making all of the characters so likeable. Anyways, I spend half of my time perusing YouTube for my favourite TV clips, and as Ron Swanson is one of my all-time favourite TV characters, this is my go-to playlist for his best clips.

@blairmotlukpoli333: I don’t know about you, but growing up in Winnipeg gave me a serious love/hate relationship with the city. In fact, it was mostly hate until I left, and I find myself getting homesick all the time. It especially happens in early December when I’m trying to get myself excited for Christmas but it is rainy, miserable, and green in Vancouver when the ground should be covered in snow. Anyways, this year I started looking for photos of Winnipeg Winters to satisfy my craving for nostalgia, and I stumbled upon this website. The tagline pretty much captures everything I feel about the city.

@jeffdemo: I am so glad there’s a fellow Homeland fan in the class! I honestly watched the entire first season in two days this week when I was sick. Without giving too much away to anyone else in the class who may be reading this, and may want to watch the show, I’ll say that I enjoyed the finale but I’m worried about a few things for next season. This article from New York Magazine kind of captures what I thought about the whole episode.

 

Elective Post (1) – The Golden Globe Awards

January 22nd, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

“The Hollywood Foreign Press have warned me that if I insult any of you, or any of them, or offend any viewers, or cause any controversy whatsoever, they’ll definitely invite me back next year as well.”

Generally, I am an avid follower of popular culture. I was especially obsessive about last year’s movie award season, as I had seen most of the nominated films and was a devout fan of The Social Network. When I tuned in to the 2011 Golden Globe Awards, then, it was entirely for the purpose of rooting for the film I had enjoyed so much. Ricky Gervais’ hosting gig ended up being a (very) pleasant surprise.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding his performance last year: stories about him being fired in the middle of the show, with celebrity guests polarized between giving praise and criticism. Needless to say, the talk of him being fired by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was a publicity stunt, as Ricky Gervais was invited to host again this year, and most people (I imagine) were excited to tune in.

Actually, it’s pretty much the only reason I tuned in, as I have hardly seen any of the films nominated this year. I generally watch the Globes regardless of what’s nominated, simply for the sake of seeing a bunch of A-list celebrities making use of an open bar, only to later give lively, drunken acceptance speeches. But after Ricky’s monologue last year, which was significantly more “controversial” than his monologue the year before, I expected him to go big or go home  – to keep testing the HFPA until they refuse to invite him back again.

So, interestingly, when he made the joke (quoted at the beginning of this post) implying his imperviousness to censorship, and then provided a list of rules he had to follow, I expected him to break every one of them. I waited for the entire show. In the end, though, not only did the HFPA seem to successfully enforce a level of censorship, but they seemed to cut back on his screen time, as well. Of course, Ricky has since tweeted that it was his personal favourite hosting experience at the Golden Globes. Did he get paid more to keep his mouth shut? Will he be invited back next year? I guess we’ll find out.

One highlight of the show – though I didn’t know it at the time – was Homeland‘s win for Best TV Drama. I quickly spent the next two days watching the first 12-episode season, and as I said in my intro post, I am officially hooked. So I guess the Globes were good for something.

 

Democracy In The News (1): SOPA

January 22nd, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

I suppose anyone with access to a computer is aware of the Stop Online Piracy Act that was introduced to the House in October – especially if you’re someone who uses Wikipedia as obsessively as I do. When I say obsessively, I mean obsessively – I probably look something up five times a day, and at least once of those five times, I’ll end up spending hours link-surfing Wikipedia pages.

Needless to say, Wednesday’s blackout was an effective way to get my attention. Every time I forgot about the blackout and searched for something on Wikipedia, only to find the highly frustrating image as featured in this post, I cursed SOPA and everything it stood for – and then attempted to look it up on Wikipedia.

It was, undeniably, an effective protest. My twitter-feed was abuzz, and Facebook was overloaded with political comments by friends I know would have trouble naming a local newspaper. The protest became an interesting reflection on democracy when Rep.  Smith announced that he was postponing action on the bill for the time-being. It was an exciting moment for a lot of people, I imagine, who may feel as jaded as I do about the limited impact that peaceful protest seems to have nowadays.

In a country where “lobbying” is a bad word, it seems to me that Wikipedia’s protest – and the similarly peaceful protest of many other websites – can be seen as democracy by a different definition. While there is no general election to give power to these websites, we do so by electing to use them on a regular basis. Without a constitution, or a charter, many of these websites chose to represent the wishes of their own “constituents”, and acted as delegates for a massive online community of people who would be negatively affected by the implications of SOPA and PIPA. It was a perfect example of E-Democracy, a fun term you can read all about on Wikipedia, for free, because the internet is a great and powerful thing.

Assignment (1): Introduction Post

January 16th, 2012 § 3 comments § permalink

Hi everyone,

I am a 4th year Sociology major, minoring in Political Science. I was born just outside of Toronto, but spend most of my life in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before heading out here for school. I hate the rain, and I would prefer the freezing cold (but sunny) weather of Winnipeg any day. I am graduating this year (fingers crossed), at which point I hope to move to Toronto to pursue a career in public relations.

As we have the opportunity to do one free-style post a week, I suppose I should give everyone in the class fair warning about my interests. I am an avid follower of popular culture, so as we are in the midst of awards season there will likely be a few posts about that. I try to keep up with a number of television shows, the most recent of which is Homeland, which I highly recommend to everyone.

That being said, I’m looking forward to this class and I will try to keep my posts as entertaining as possible for those of you who will be reading.

 

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