Election Test Post

I feel that in today’s political environment you need to be more than just the best candidate and the hardest working. Also, I feel that as a society we can be too easily swayed by media bias and if a news source does not want to cover a certain politician it can do that because of the power it has to control the news. Media bias is the bias of news reporters and producers selecting which news stories are going to be presented and how they are presented. The media plays a large part in helping citizens chose who they are going to vote for so they can use their power to help the candidate that they like and that candidate might not always be the best. This limits certain people in elections because it will stop them from reaching a larger audience. Another limiting factor in getting elected is campaign funds. One type of funding is called ‘hard money’ which is campaign funds directly donated to the candidate and is limited in the amount of money that can be given. ‘Soft money’ is money that is contributed to the political party, a political organization with common interests seeking to keep control of the government, and not to a specific candidate. This type of donation is used to help build the party. If a candidate is not well known and is not really known to the voters it funding is going to be hard to come by. They do not stand a chance against big names that have sources of campaign funds and can afford to a big budget. The candidate with little funds will have to work hard just to get his name out there to start bringing in money for the campaign. Political action committees also help to fund candidates. These committees are private groups that hold specific interests and will donate money to the candidate that they believe will help them in their fight and interest. These groups can now even sway the opinions of the candidates because they can use this power of money to change the goals of the candidates. This need for money to be elected really changes how an election is ran because a candidate is going to need a lot of money to win. After all this campaigning where money and the media play their role it is now up to the people to vote. Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who end up voting. This can be very important in state and local elections because these are separated by not that many votes. A person who is voting just to vote will usually vote for the person the media is choosing and this again is how the media uses its power. Voter turnout can also be a negative thing because the people who care and know the issues will always vote but of someone is voting just to vote and do not know anything they can be hurting the cause. I feel that in today’s political environment a candidate needs a lot of campaign voting and the backing of the media to even stand a chance in the election. That is just how it works in today’s society and it takes away from the democratic process of it.

Civil Liberties Test

When the freedoms and protections collide in there can be a misunderstanding of the rights because they change under certain circumstances. We can look at several Supreme Court cases and see what happens when these two collide. In the case of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier the principal of the school found two articles in the school paper inappropriate so he removed them from the paper. The students argued that this violated their freedom of press and the 1st amendment. When the case went to court it was found that the principal did not violate the 1st amendment because schools are not required to affirmatively provide particular types of speech in schools and the schools are suppose to act in the best interest of the students and protect them. However when you look at the case of Near v. Minnesota the results of the decision differ from the Hazelwood case. A publishing company wanted to print stories about local officials who were caught up in bad politics so the officials wanted it stopped so under Minnesota state law they stopped the article from being printed. The publishing company said it violated their freedom of press. When the case was brought to the Supreme Court they ruled the state law was unconstitutional and the government could not censor publication in advance. This case differs from freedom of press in schools. The government cannot stop publication to protect people from stories but in schools they can review publications before they go out to protect their students. Another place where freedoms and protections also collide is with the 4th amendment. The rules for search and seizure depend on the situation and who is involved. In the case of Mapp v. Ohio, Mapp is convicted of possessing obscene materials after an illegal police search of her home. The conviction was thrown out because all evidence obtained through an illegal search was inadmissible in a state court. In this case Mapp was allowed her freedoms because her house was illegally searched therefore none of the evidence could be used. Another case dealing with the 4th amendment and search and seizure is the New Jersey v. T.L.O. A girl got smoking in the bathroom of her school so her purse was searched and they found marijuana in her bag. This case did not violate the fourth amendment because less strict rules are applied in schools for search and seizure because the schools are allowed to act in the best interest of their students and protect them before they get their freedoms. Then in the case of Miranda v. Arizona, the police failed to notify the people they were interrogating their right to counsel. This violated the 5th amendment of every citizen’s right to counsel. The courts could not use statements from interrogations unless safeguards were used to allow the privilege against self discrimination. Miranda’s freedoms were allowed here to protect himself from self incrimination. Freedoms tend to win when it comes to adults. The government cannot prevent the freedom of press to defend a group of individuals from a true story being released about them, however in a school the principal or administration can limit their freedom of press to protect the students. In schools protections tend to be important then freedoms because the school acts as the student’s parents when they are there and must act to protect the student’s best interests. Freedoms collide with protections and will continue to because there are different circumstances in which freedoms are protected over the protection of individuals.