Classroom Blog 4

This blog is late due to problems with Firefox.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

On Monday, we continued to look at the Bill of Rights. We received a paper listing the first ten amendments, and then received a scenario. Once we read through it, we had to answer questions about which amendments could help the people in the scenario appeal their convictions. Besides the fact that the scenario was extremely amusing due to the fact that Madonna was a major player, it was a pretty cool activity. I would think that I'd listed all the possible amendments, and then I'd find out that there are actually two more hiding in the next amendment down. It's nice to know that I'm thoroughly covered from any injustice on the governments part. Although, in Madonna's case, I think it might be to late to appeal, considering she's already been hanged.
On Tuesday, we learned about the first party system in the U.S., which was basically just two parties. The Federalists, mostly unchanged, and the Democratic Republicans. The Federalists still believed in a strong central government, but they had further developed their views and now campaigned for the country to be run by the wealthy and well-educated elite. Their ideas about how the country should be run favored traders and merchants, and they saw the Constitution as loose guidelines. The Democratic Republicans favored the small states and farmers, as they saw the Constitution as strict guidelines. Looking at the beliefs of both of the parties, I could see little ideas and beliefs that are present in the major parties today. It just goes to show just how much we are still very connected to our original roots.