Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Photo ID to vote: Good idea or bad idea?

In Congress currently is H.R. 4844, a bill that would require voters to present a photo ID at the polls in order to vote. This quote is taken from http://thomas.loc.gov/.
"To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require any individual who desires to register or re-register to vote in an election for Federal office to provide the appropriate State election official with proof that the individual is a citizen of the United States to prevent fraud in Federal elections, and for other purposes."

Pros and cons:
1. Photo ID helps prevent voter fraud.
2. Photo ID is impractical and costly for the elderly and poor.
3. Many people already have this ID - their driver's license - so it will cost little to implement.
4. There's little evidence to suggest that such voter fraud actually exists.
5. Illegal aliens are prevented from voting by such a law.
6. Judges have recently struck down laws like these (or given injunctions to stop them) in states like Missouri http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/15519955.htm, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and Arizona.

Read up on it at http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/15/voterid/index_np.html

So tell us what you think: should Americans have a photo ID to vote in federal elections? Why or why not?

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Journal #1 - Is Progress that separates the rich and the poor true progress?

Your job is to provide comments on the following quote:

"So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent."

Henry George, Progress and Poverty. A passage from one of the most widely read American books in the 1880s, the author was highlighting the great puzzle of the era: Why did such great poverty exist at a time of such great progress and wealth? The question has been at the center of much of America's political life ever since.

A couple of questions to get you thinking for your journal response:
- Can America be a great nation w/ 15-20% of its populace living in poverty? Why or why not?
- Why do we still have these same problems of wealth disparity today that they did back in the 1880s?
- Can the solution to wealth disparity be found in the government or in businesses? Neither? Why?
- Why has America prospered so much while some other nations failed so miserably?