Politics in Context

“To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” - United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 The Intellectual Property Clause of United States Constitution gives Congress the power to grant copyrights and patents. Copyright law protects original works of authorship in a tangible medium, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and other intellectual works. Patent law protects new and useful processes, machines, products, designs, and varieties of plants. The first law regarding intellectual property was the Copyright Act of 1790 . The act allowed an author to obtain a copyright for a printed work for 14 years that could be renewed once. Violating a copyright was punishable by a fine of 50 cents per printed page of copyrighted material. Once a copyright expired, the work would enter the public domain , free to be used by all wi...

After World War II, the United States experienced an economic boom. Years of rationing created an American population that was hungry for luxury goods . While the rest of the world was focusing on rebuilding, America was producing and consuming. Workers in America were in a strong bargaining position. The  GI Bill  gave returning veterans access to higher education, low-priced loans, and healthcare. Labor unions made sure that workers were receiving a fair share of the country's new wealth. In 1965, nearly a third of US workers belonged to a union . Between 1945 and 1975, American wages increased at roughly the same rate as  productivity. Even among the richest Americans, excessive wealth was considered immoral. The average CEO made  twenty  times the amount the average worker did. Mitt Romney's father  once said,  "no executive needed to make more than $225,000 (about $1.4 million in today’s dollars) ."  In 1955, Forbes wrote an art...

" Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, a man got fucked. Now how is that for a story? 'Cause that's the story of black people, IN AMERICA!" -Anansi the Spider Under the institution of slavery , black people were property. They had none of the "inalienable rights" laid out in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Countless innocent people were killed, ripped away from their families, forced to endure unimaginable pain and humiliation, all because white America did not consider them to be people. Slavery was the greatest injustice ever perpetuated in American history, enforced by every branch of the United States' government.  Even before the Declaration of Independence was signed, there were abolitionists . The abolitionists sought to end the horror of slavery through various means . William Lloyd Garrison, supported by free African-Americans in Boston, printed an anti-slavery newspaper, the  Liberator.   "Conductors,...

     Thomas Paine’s pamphlet,  Common Sense , was published anonymously on January 10, 1776. In forty-nine pages, Paine clearly laid out the moral and political arguments for declaring independence from Great Britain and fighting for a democratic government. The pamphlet was distributed across the colonies and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. Common Sense was instrumental in rallying the colonists to fight for independence.      The campaign for independence was one of the first nationwide campaigns in American history. People needed to be convinced to act, to stand up for what was right and throw off the shackles of a tyrannical government. A dedicated group of people worked towards convincing a nation, through every medium available, that something had to be done. Campaigning has always been the foundation of democracy. In order to influence the decision-making process in government, Americans have stood up, talked to their fellow c...

George Washington hated political  parties . In his farewell address in 1796, Washington warned that powerful political parties could obstruct the execution of the law and subvert the will of the majority. George Washington was the last non-partisan president. Two major political parties had formed almost as soon as the Revolutionary War ended. The Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, wanted a stronger federal government. The Democratic-Republican Party, formed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, pushed for greater state autonomy. Today, "big government" Democrats war against "states' rights" Republicans. With few exceptions, two parties have always dominated American politics. Third parties have always existed, yet they have rarely succeeded in gaining any power. My favorite example is the Bull Moose Party, started by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 just so he could run for president after he lost the Republican nomination to President Taft. Rooseve...

   The first televised presidential debate happened on September 26, 1960 . Seventy million Americans tuned in to watch John F. Kennedy face off against Vice President Richard Nixon . By most accounts, JFK won, not necessarily because he made better arguments, but because he looked good. JFK was cool and collected while Nixon, who kept shifting his weight, looked tense and nervous. After three more debates, JFK won the election.    Even after losing, Nixon continued to underestimate the power of television. Then, in 1967, he appeared on The Mike Douglas Show,  where he met the show's executive producer, Roger Ailes. Nixon insisted that TV was a gimmick; Ailes firmly believed in television's power to inform and shape a narrative. Nixon was so impressed he hired Ailes immediately. With Ailes' help, Nixon polished his image and won the presidential election in 1968.    During Nixon's presidency, Ailes wrote a memo titled "A Plan for Putting the GOP on ...

     After the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, there was a schism. Southern Democrats, who had been champions of states’ rights and opposed the legislation, were at odds with President Lyndon Johnson and the rest of the party. This gap grew wider as more African-Americans joined the Democratic Party in response to the passing of the Act , pushing the party further left on civil rights issues.      The divide did not go unnoticed. Richard Nixon, intent on winning the Presidency in 1968, saw an opportunity. In order to get disgruntled southern Democrats on his side, a group that the Republican Party never would have been able to win over otherwise, Nixon crafted a message that “ emphasized… the whole problem is really the blacks.  The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to."   This was the Southern Strategy. Too smart to apply obvious racism that might make northern Republicans uncomfortable, Nixon ran on a cam...