I do not believe that congress can represent the people authentically. Why may you ask? In our current society there is prejudice, racism, gender inequality, class inequality, and minority groups who are not properly represented.
The Senate and the House of Representatives was originally created to represent the citizens from all walks of life equally and without prejudice. Minorities, women, men, and all manners of classes are supposed to have equal representation. According to an article that I found posted on March 9, 2011 from CBS News, "sixty percent of Senate freshman and more than 40 percent of House freshman are millionaires. This was reported by an analysis done by the Center for Responsive Politics."(http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20041350-503544.html)
With knowing this simple fact how is our congress authentically representing the people? According to The Politics of Power on page 182, "blacks comprise 12 percent of the electorate occupying 7 percent of the seats in the house and one percent of all senate seats. Women make up 52 percent of all eligible voters and they make up 14 percent of the seats in the house and held about 16 percent of the seats in the senate. Hispanics are 8 percent of the electorate occupying 3 percent of the seats in the house and 2 percent of all senate seats."
With these two stimulating facts authentic representation is extremely far fetched. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Classes will stay having an enormous range of inequality. As of this minute the working class has never been represented.
2 comments:
Hello Patricia,
I chose to review your blog, http://dmayer66.blogspot.com/, because its overall appearance was eye catching. First of all, I really liked the clean, easy to read layout with the neutral tones. It can be easy to get carried away in adding elements to our blogs and has actually inspired me to make sure my own blog stays under control. Too many added elements can make a page overly busy and easy to lose its message amongst the clutter. Two things that immediately caught my attention on your blog were the nice water and rock background and the Alan Jackson song you posted in your January 30th post about the challenges and opportunities of democracy. I am personally a huge fan of country music and there is nothing better than a good patriotic country song.
On the other side of the argument, as devil’s advocate to my own statement: while I am always a fan of a clean, professionally appearance, which your blog is, I actually wish you had more added elements. Your political cartoon picture and music video really add some personality to your blog. While our blogs have specific purposes to achieve in writing about important topics, added pieces of “flare” can bring a page to life.
In the articles you have written for your blog entries, you provide supporting facts and ask good questions for the reader to consider. You really represent your opinion and thoughts on the topics well and write to those topics. Once you start reading the post, one has to finish, because the questions put back on the reader make it interesting. It can be challenging for some to write and stand behind their opinions. You really seem to write honestly and work through the topics.
One thing I have noticed about all of our blogs is that we are all citing things differently. You certainly reference your sources in your articles, but it would be nice to see the sources in a works cited at the bottom of her entries or maybe one works cited for the whole blog. I am still working each week to improve the accuracy of my works cited and am open to sharing ideas. I look forward to following Patricia’s blog as we continue to build them and ourselves.
Georgina Pollock
Hi Patricia-
I choose to review your blog. I was immediately impressed by the clean cut and edgy appearance of your blog. I like being able to see your thoughts and opinions develop as your blog has continued to grow.
You blog integrates many dimensions within itself. I enjoyed seeing the political cartoon and the music video that you built in. It created another dimension that helped to bring your blog to life.
I would almost enjoy see a bit more of a uniform to the blog. I enjoy the honesty and the opinions. A reader can tell that you are working through your own thought process.
I hope that you continue blogging as you are, it's a clean and fresh look on politics!
Post a Comment