American History II students are currently reviewing the Constitution and its amendments.
EXTRA CREDIT:
1. Discuss which amendment is the most important and why?
2. Do you think that the Electoral College system is a good one? Why or Why not?
1. The first amendment is the most important because it opens up the possibility for every other amendment. It guarantees that Americans may say and believe what they want, no matter what. Unfortunately, these rights have been lessened greatly over the last many years.
ReplyDelete2. The Electoral College is good in theory, but not in practice. I believe that the E.C. was created to ensure that all states would be equally represented within their election, but it has become less effective and corrupt throughout the years. This is because certain states, such as Montana, don't get many electoral votes even though there are many of us in the state.
-Sari
I believe the most important ammendment is the first because it protects our freedom more than any other ammendment. However, it would be an even more important one if there weren't so many limits to this freedom. We are free to speak, have our own religion, assemble, petition, and publish papers, but only as long as it does not threaten or offend anyone on the high end of society. So really,if this ammendment protected our freedom absolutly, it would be the most important ammendment.
ReplyDelete-Veda Henion
I don't believe that the Electoral College System is right. I believe that everyone should have a say as to who becomes president. What good is the right to vote when it's not actually counted towards who becomes president? It doesn't seem fair to me.
ReplyDelete-Veda
1.I believe that the first amendment is by far the most important. There are many reasons why i believe this.The fact that is gives us freedom of speech and religion says alto. For many people their religion is what makes them the person they are and having the freedom of speech makes it possible to share our beliefs with the rest of the world. I cant find any reason why that isn't a wonderful thing.
ReplyDelete2. To me the Electoral College is not entirely fair. They say the votes of the people are what really count. Is that really true? One president can win over the people but still in fact not become our president. I find that extremely unfair to all of the voters that really believe their vote will make a difference. I think the outcome should be strictly up to the voters.
-Abbie Holder
1.I believe that the first amendment is the most important. It generalizes many of the other amendments giving us freedom. It gives people the freedom to express who you are and say what you believe/ feel as long as you aren't slandering or harming others.
ReplyDelete2. I don't entirely like the electoral college. It gives more power to larger populated states, ignoring those that are less populated. Take Montana for example, 3 votes compared to Calfornia with 55 votes, that isn't enough to matter. I personally feel the the popular vote should elect the president, not an elecoral college.
-Selene Elster
1. I feel like the 1st amendment is the most important to us as citizens because of the freedoms that it provides. It gives everyone the right to be who they want to be. It restricts the making of any law that impedes on the freedom of religion, that limits the freedom of speech, or interferes with the freedom of press and peaceable assembly.
ReplyDelete2. I think the popular vote should have more impact on the outcome of the elections. Like Selene mentioned, the higher populated states have a much greater influence on the election which I don't think is right. I think the electoral college system should be revised and a system that includes the general voters should be implemented.
-Tanner Peterson
1. I think the first amendment is the most important because it gives us the right of speech. We can not get in trouble for speaking our minds.
ReplyDelete2. I don't like the idea of the electoral college because it is unfair to a less populated state. Say if California wanted something totally different from Montana than California would get it because California has way more e.c. votes. -Brittany H-W
1. There have been many important amendments throughout history that have really shaped our country. It is hard to say that one amendment is more important than another. The 13th amendment ended slavery and then we could finally say as a country that all men are created equal. This being said, if I had to choose one single amendment that was the most important it would have to be the first. It gave us many of our basic rights, allows us to say what we want to say, and gives us many freedoms. It also expresses freedom of religion wich is extremely important to many people.
ReplyDelete2. I do not think that the electoral college system is good. Everybody in this country who votes wants to believe that their vote actually means something. With the electoral college many people's votes do not matter hardly at all. Montana only gets three electoral votes while other states get over 10 times that. The president should be elected just on popular vote not by an electoral college.
- Ryan Holder
1. I believe that the first amendment is the most important because it gives the people 5 basic freedoms that every American needs. It grants people the right to speak their views, the right to meet with others to speak about public affairs, and the right to practice their religion. All great points on why the first amendment is the most important.
ReplyDelete2. The Electoral College is not a good system. I think that the decision of who gets to be president should be in the hands of everyone, not just a select few. It doesn't seem fair to me that no one really has a say and we have to rely on one group of people to decide our president.
1. I think that the First Amendment is the most important. It allows us to say what we believe. The First Amendment gives us the right of speech, petition, press and religion. It is probably the most important amendment because without it the government would control what we say, what we believe and we would be unable to voice our opinions.
ReplyDelete2. I do not agree with the Electoral College. One of our rights is the right to vote, however, our vote doesn't really count since the President is elected by the E.C. With the use of the E.C. smaller states are not as strongly represented since the amount of votes we are allowed depend on the size of the state. In Montana we are only given 3 votes but a state such as Texas has 34 and California gets 55. I think that the President should be elected by popular vote as opposed to the electoral college.
--Kayla Neuman
1. The first amendment is definitely the most important. I personally feel this way, because it truly appeals to the rights of thinking freely within a society. As long as no protest or organization is causing harm of any sort it should be perfectly legal.
ReplyDelete2. Most state's representatives and senators that make up the electoral college highly out number the 3 votes that Montana gets in the presidential election. I feel that something definitely needs to be changed but I'm not sure exactly what should be changed...
1. In my opinion the most important amendment is the second, the right of the people to keep and bear arms. I think this is important because it’s the one amendment that enforces freedom in our hands and has remained to shaped our future today. This amendment is one that we are given to be able to protect ourselves and avoid becoming total slaves to the government. It avoids the government taking to much control and keeps citizens from living in fear. In worst case scenarios the second amendment gives us the right to defend against things the government or military can’t protect us from. Out of all the amendments this one has stayed the truest throughout the years. Today, the right to bear arms hasn’t been tampered with or manipulated by the government to serve their desires. It stays true to the people, unlike the majority of others amendments today. The second amendment is the most important because protection, freedom, and peace of mind always rank first in my book.
ReplyDelete2. In my opinion the Electoral College is not a good way to select the president. I feel like the reason they set it up was to keep a nation wide vote, that could get messed up easily, on a smaller scale. Since most voters in the Electoral College vote for their state majority it seems like this would work. However, they aren’t forced to vote with popular vote, so a vote from a state could be the opinion from one person in rare cases. They say “every vote counts”, but in the case of an Electoral College your vote only counts if you vote the same as everyone else in your state. Just because you live in the same state as someone doesn’t mean you think the same as them. There have been times in history where a popular vote, has one man winning, but the Electoral Vote isn’t the same so the less popular person wins.
This system also makes an inequality of states. If one state, like Texas has thirty four votes and one has three, like Montana, the politicians are going to listen to, promise to, and care about the “important” states. Thousands of thoughts and opinions “of the people” are being severely neglected because of this inadequate system. Counting ever person’s vote in America would create a more fair, equal, and accurate outcome than voting by Electoral College.
- Kelsey Hammond
The electoral college system worked out well before modern communication and travel. It was much easier to tally up votes in each state and have each state vote. however, now with modern technology it would be very easy to have a national election where every vote is counted as in a true democracy
ReplyDelete1. In regards to the people of the United States, the first amendment is most important to our society because it creates an environment where people can openly embrace different aspects of their cultural backgrounds. This amendment allows us to have a role in our government, and without it, there would be no opinion or democracy. By creating freedom of speech, press, religion, etc., we create a diverse population that challenges the government and gives us the freedom to do so.
ReplyDelete2. The Electoral College is an efficient way to elect a president, however, it is very easy to corrupt. With today's technology, votes can now be counted electronically. This leaves room for error due to malfunctions or tampering of the results. With that in mind, there are is not a lot of trust when it comes to the public's vote, so the choice is made by the members of the college. This creates a potential problem because of biases the members may have. The best way to solve this problem is to count every vote by hand by a number of different parties to make sure that each vote is contributed to democracy.
-Tia
I think the first amendment is the most important simply because it provides the people with certain freedoms. It gives us the ability to think and speak for ourselves rather than adopt someone elses opinion. This is what makes us a free country.
ReplyDeleteKendra
I strongly believe that the Second Amendment is definitely the most important because it gives us the right to bear arms and protect ourselves with those arms if the need for it arises.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the Electoral college is a very good system because, what is the point of us being able to vote if it doesn't actually effect who is elected as president.