You wonder why you don’t get any results from ‘writing to your congressman?’
Representatives are capped at 435 individuals. This sets a ratio of citizens-to-reps at a ridiculously low level. In fact, if this ratio were in effect in 1789, there would only be** 5 representatives TOTAL for the 13 states.**
That means that **5 states would have only 1 representative - and 8 states would have NO REPRESENTATION at all!!! **
I remember the day that I sat in U.S. Government class as a senior in high school and asked the question, “What do the Democrat and Republican parties represent? Do they mean to say that the Democrats propose a democracy and that the Republicans propose to support a republic?”
Our teacher, Mr. Orr, replied, “I’m afraid we can’t discuss that in here. I value my job more than that. Does anyone else have any questions? If not, let’s turn to page ## in our books and continue.”
It struck me as totally absurd then - that we couldn’t talk about government in Government class because of political correctness in our public school and it still strikes me as completely absurd. I wish I’d had access to the information in Dr. Livingston’s presentation back then!
I don’t feel like watching the video; are you interested in summarizing it?
Though I can guess by the rest of your rather scattered post it probably attempts to claim that the South seceded for some reason other than protecting the institution of slavery. If so, it’s lying.
Maybe the Southern states would have had enough citizens to get more representatives if they had freed the slaves and granted them citizenship. That would have been something!
I am not sure why you felt a need to start a thread in Great Debates just because you had a crappy teacher. We discussed those issues in both our American History and our Government classes and no one even considered it likely that the teachers would get a wrist slap, much less lose their jobs.
If your teacher was not 1) being facetious
2) being needlessly paranoid
or 3) flat out lying,
then you lived in some sort of truly horrible school district.
(And the answer to the question in the thread title is:
the Southern leaders worked themselves into a lather fearing that the North might abolish slavery 20 years hence and they really, really needed their slavery.)
[QUOTE]
**John Green:** "Hi I’m John Green; this is Crash Course US History and today we discuss one of the most confusing questions in American history:
What caused the Civil War?
Just kidding, it’s not a confusing question at all: Slavery caused the Civil War."
Mr.Green from the past: “Mr. Green, Mr. Green, but what about, like, states rights and nationalism, economics –”
John Green:"Me from the Past, your senior year of high school you will be taught American Government by Mr. Fleming, a white Southerner who will seem to you to be about 182 years old, and you will say something to him in class about states rights.
And Mr. Fleming will turn to you and he will say, “A state’s rights to what, sir?” And for the first time in your snotty little life, you will be well and truly speechless."
[/QUOTE]
But the question he refused to answer can certainly be answered without taking sides. One merely presents the arguments evenly, attributing them to the appropriate sides or authors.
The Constitution states rather plainly that every State gets at least one Representative. Since obviously you haven’t even bothered to read the document, we can disregard anything you say as the postings of somebody who can’t be bothered to read, therefore can be safely ignored.
That sounds like why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway? The names are historical artifacts. Do not search for meaning in the names.
Depending on the school population, I could totally see someone teaching Government not wanting to dive into political identity. That way lies aggrieved arguments. And if someone’s trying to open that box with a joke (are they proposing a democracy?), it’s obviously not a good time to open the box. Especially if your buddies were grinning.
)