Change

So this is it my last blog for the American Presidency class.  As much as I would love to do a whole reflection blog, on how much I have learned and how much I have changed this semester, I can’t because I panicked and did one prematurely for blog post 17.  I mean there is no doubt that I have changed this semester, I mean I started out a political science major and I leave a biology major (now I get to learn about platyhelminthes and gymnosperms).  However, that is change that has nothing to do with class or my other political science class, comparative politics (ok that’s a lie comparative politics definitely was a factor).

While I stand on the brink of change concerning the different types of classes that I will be taking next year, I think that our country is about to undergo some big changes itself.  When President Obama entered office he did so with the promise of change.  Now 11 months later, one of his biggest criticisms is the complete lack of change.  Yet I would venture to say we stand on the brink of great change.  The healthcare bill in the senate is going to pass maybe not this year, but I bet sometime relatively soon.  Also the president has just increased the United States commitment in Afghanistan.

Things are bound to change, both domestically, and in foreign affairs.  So as Obama looks ahead to his second year, and the rest of his term he will begin to feel the effects that his first year has had.  He will finally be able to witness the change that he has promised.  It is to soon whether the change is going to be strictly beneficial are harmful.  Yet there is no denying that there is definitely going to be some changes made around here.

Nobel Peace Prize Once Again

Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is coming back to the forefront of the media to haunt him again.  It is definitely a tough situation for President Obama; I mean it is not like he expected to get the prize so soon in office.  Now that he has sent a troop surge into Afghanistan the prize is starting to also look hypocritical in some people’s eyes.  The whole Afghanistan issue had horrible timing.  President Obama announces he’s sending 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, and then a few days later he leaves to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize.

Even people who still support President Obama claim that if “I was him I would be too embarrassed to accept it.”  Mainly the Middle East is where President Obama’s approval rating are taking a severe hit.  In the beginning of his presidency the Middle East countries hoped for a better relationship with the United States and feel that better relationship is not going to be achieved with this latest surge in troops.

Picking up his Nobel Peace Prize is definitely an ill-timed moment for President Obama.  He is already been criticized so much for his decision about Afghanistan, and the lack of change here at home.   He definitely did not need the whole Nobel Peace Prize issue to come to the surface again.  I bet the President has kind of a love hate relationship with it.  It is no doubt a huge honor to receive the prize, but at the same time even he knows he probably should not be the one to have received it.  I wonder where he will keep it at the white house.  I mean keeping it in an obvious place of honor only would serve to ignite more criticism, but I mean it’s not like it’s a something that you can just hide up in the attic.

Copenhagen: U.S. and China

My first blog ever was about the UN Global warming summit, and one of my last blogs is going to me the Copenhagen talks.  There seems to be a connection between the two other then the whole environment issue, China and the United States are battling it out.  Todd Stern started out strong by immediately demanding that China make huge cuts on its carbon emission.  He did not have any mercy for their “developing country” status.

Sterns vowed that the United States emissions have started to flatten out, and promised that they will go down.  An idea was purposed that American taxpayers should help pay for China’s plan for emission reduction.  While he did not support our taxpayers paying for China’s plan for carbon emission reduction, he said that America would be more willing to support poor developing nations plans to reduce their carbon emissions.

America so far has planned to cut emissions by 17% from the 2005 carbon emission rates.  The 17% cut is an ambitious goal, and is admirable.  The only issue is that there does not seem to be a sure way as to how the United States is going to achieve that goal.  There have been all different kinds of ideas thrown out there, but not single one has been settled on.

President Obama’s most recent idea is tied up in his job program plan.  He wants to use some of the $200 billion dollars in the TARP fund to help create jobs in clean energy.  While the idea has merit, there is currently a huge debate over what should be done with that money.

TARP

What should we do with TARP?  First of TARP stands for Troubled Asset Relief Program, and is a program that was set in place as part of Congress’ Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. The money in the TARP fund is what is driving the news recently.  Obama wants to use the TARP money in part of a $200 billion jobs program.  However others would like to see this money used to help to start pay back the national deficit.

Obama’s job program would stimulate jobs in only three areas of our economy: small business, clean energy, and infrastructure.  All of this of course has to pass through congress first, and I am not sure if it will go straight through.

Rather than use the money on a job program, I think the best plan would be to use the money to start to pay back our national debt.  I feel like if the money is used for a jobs program right now, it’s just a quick fix kind of solution that can have more harmful implications further down the line.  Eventually we would have to pay that money back anyway.  Our economy is slowly rebounding from the recession, and eventually it should stabilize again.  I do not think that the recovering job market necessarily needs a job program boost.  There is no doubt that with sending more troops into Afghanistan, and the new health care bill that our country will be in more national debt later down the road.  Shouldn’t we try to pay what we can now?



Our Governmental System

Today in class Andy asked what do you think of our governmental system?  This is a big question most people in the class are in political science and they study exactly that, our government.  Yet there was a silence for a while, no one really had an immediate response ready.  Now it’s 10:40 and I have food in me and my brain can finally process such big questions like what do I think of our political system?

Well I have never lived or even visited another country, to experience another governmental system, so granted I am going to be a little biased.  I think that our system is the best governing system in the world today, but there is always room for improvement.  I know I am lucky to live here with the freedoms that each United States citizen is entitled to, but still I find our whole government system incredibly frustrating.

On paper (the constitution basically), our governmental system looks great, we have separation of powers, checks and balances, a bill of rights, and the power to amend it is we absolutely need to.  However, when this government system is implemented it comes along with all these petty politics that drive me crazy.  A few classes ago Iris mentioned something about the “average Joe American” and his lack of knowledge when it comes to politics.  Lately I have been kind of thinking about this and you know that is not such a bad thing.

During my year and a half as a political science major, I have learned that our system is stable and change is hard to come by.  Politicians run on promises of change on cleaning up our political system, but in reality change is a very, very slow progression.  Our political system is built on a set of procedures, not hope.  While politics maybe a necessity, all the petty jabs that conservatives spit at democrats really do not mean much in the end.  It seems like all the petty politics only serve to get in the way of our system.

I know this is kind of a weird post, and might not really make sense, but basically what I am trying to say is that I have faith in our constitution and the system it creates. On the other hand I do not have faith in a lot of the people who are involved in politics.  I have faith that our system is strong enough to endure the petty politics, because the politicians will always be held accountable to the citizens and the citizens will not let them go to far.  The “average Joe” American may not care or know that much about politics, but it does not really matter because as soon as politics start affecting Joe in a bad way he will start to care.

Turkey’s Take on Iran

President Obama has finally decided what to do concerning Afghanistan, and 30,000 troops are now going to be deployed.  However the Iran nuclear situation is still at a standstill.  Lately, the Iran issue has been pushed to the back-burner, because of the health care plan, the Asian tour, Afghanistan and now the Copenhagen talks.  However the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has brought up the nuclear problem once again when he visited with President Obama at the White House.

Mr. Erdogan claimed that the only way to solve the Iranian nuclear issue is through diplomacy.  He does not believe that economic sanctions, or force are the right way to approach Iran.  However, it seems that most of the international community does not see it the same way as Prime Minister Erdogan does.  The lack of results that diplomacy has shown has only served to make the international community favor more economic sanctions.  Obama claimed “he cannot wait forever for Iran to come to the negotiating table”(LaFranchi 2009).  It looks like there may be some confrontation in the UN Security council that Turkey is part of, but not as a permanent member.

The Christian Science Monitor columnist, Howard LaFranchi, pointed out that Turkey may be showing an inclination to turn from the West and start siding with the East.  However Prime Minister Erdogan claims that Turkey is only trying to find a balance between its eastern neighbors, and Western allies.

Turkey is one of the few Muslim nations that is allies with the United States so it is important that President Obama, at least gives some thought to what Turkey has to say.  On the other hand the negotiations with Iran have been idle for quite a while now and it is true that the international community is pushing for something more to be done.  Yet, are economic sanctions the right way to address Iran?  If not what else can be done?

Separation of Powers

I read an interesting article today titled “ Can Congress create agencies insulated from White house control?”  The article describes what is the latest example of Congress testing the boundary separation of powers. Tomorrow the Supreme Court is going to take a case that looks at whether congress can create a watchdog agency that is protected from presidential influence, or if that is overstepping the executive’s role.  The agency in question is the Public Company Accounting Board (PCAOB).  The board was created by congress after the Enron scandal with the intention to help keep corporate officials honest.  The Security and Exchange committee can remove and replace board members and it is this action that the Supreme court is going to state as constitutional or not.

The role of the executive is to enforce the legislation that congress enacts.  However, in this case with the PCOAB board, congress has protected the board from any influence from the president.  The opposing side claims that the board members are held accountable to the president because the Security and Exchange Committee appoint them, and the president can direct that committee.

I can see the reasoning for both sides of the coin.  However I think I would have to agree with the side that claims the board to be unconstitutional.  While the president may direct the Security and Exchange Committee, the presence of the committee dilutes his influence.  It is clearly stated that one of the presidential roles is to enforce the legislation that congress enacts.  By putting power of enforcement into a congressional committee is taking that power from the president’s hands.  Once the legislation is made congress should not have any more say in the enforcement of the legislation.

However at the same time it is not like the president has never crossed the boundary enforced by separation of powers.  The president has the ability to issue presidential decrees and isn’t creating legislation congress’ job?  Also how many times has America gone to war without congress officially declaring war?

This is only the latest example of one of the branches of government pushing the boundaries of separation of powers.  Throughout our history all branches of government have at times stepped into another branches role.  The boundaries that are provided by separation of powers are already blurred and there will probably always be a tug-of-war going on between the branches of government.

Reflection

At the beginning of the year I came into this class not really knowing much about the presidency.  I knew that we elect a new one every 4 years and that he is head of the executive branch.  I’ve never been one to follow politics, which is probably one of the reasons I am no longer a political science major.  However I am really glad I took this class.  I think this class, American National Politics, and International Relations are my favorite political science courses that I have taken at Whitworth.

I never really understood the complexities of the presidency, and I loved learning how the presidency developed from the time of the founding fathers to today.  Each president has definitely changed the role of the presidency some how during his time as president.

I think one of the greatest themes that I have learned that follow from George Washington to Barack Obama is interpretation.  It seems that every president interpreted his role in a different way.

No doubt there were trends, but no president was able to pursue the exact same agenda as his predecessor.  Some believed in complete transparency, or others like Nixon in amassing a huge executive bureaucracy.  Some believed in a laid back hands off approach, and others were very involved and wanted to promote change.  I think the most interesting aspect of this class that I will take away from this class is just how varied each and every one of our presidents is.

American Citizens have Commitment Issues

The relationship that Americans have with the presidency has always been a love-hate relationship.  We treat each president pretty much the same way.  It starts out new and exciting, kind of like any new relationship.  We are excited to get to know each other, and have great hope for the future.  Every time we tell ourselves this it this one is going to be different I can just feel it.  Then pretty soon those cute things that enticed us in the beginning start to become annoying.  President Obama’s eloquence that held our rapt attention before now seems to be empty words.  We complain that he’s all sweet talk and no action.  Soon we feel rejected and hurt, all his promises empty and unfulfilled.  Basically the citizens of the United States have serious commitment issues.

The citizens’ relationship with the president is like a lot of high school relationships.  We start out thinking of forever, but as soon as the going gets tough we bail.   We are quick to start blaming every little thing on him, and are ashamed we even entered into the relationship in the beginning.  Before we even really give him a chance we are already looking ahead scoping out the prospect for a new one something better, in say 2012 or so never mind it isn’t even 2010 yet.

In today’s world we are simply incapable of patience.  We are a nation of speed, all about the efficiency.  The idea of waiting a year for anything just seems preposterous to us.  We want change and we want it now.  Never mind that our governmental system is based on patience, and gridlock.  That does not matter to the American people all we want are results damn it and we want them fast.  I feel like the whole 24-hour news cycle is just too much, and is not helping with or already pretty serious commitment issues.  The news is just like those friends in high school that were jealous of your relationship and are trying to get you to break up.  They are always there buzzing in our ears telling us all the naughty things our president is doing behind our backs.

I do not think this relationship is ever going to change.  We are never going to have a president that lives up to our expectations and high standards simply because the president is human and bound to make mistakes.  The cycle will continue, and our love hate relationship will remain.

Afghanistan Report

Obama has officially declared a surge in Afghani troops.  He has the backing of NATO and the United Nations on this as well.  Will this increase lead to a long-term commitment?  If it does lead to a long-tern commitment will American citizens support or express their displeasure? How is it being paid for?  I believe that it is safe to say that President Obama does not wish for the troop increase to lead to a long-term commitment, but I feel like any increase guarantees a longer commitment than originally planned for.  So far the plan in place is 18 months.  One of the main focuses is on training the local Afghan troops.  However there are those that doubt that 18 months will be sufficient enough time.  U.S. ambassador Susan Rice is one that thinks that 18 months is too short; “it is not the expectation” that all required Afghan security forces “will be trained within 18 months” (CNN).

Along with commitment issues there is also the question of how is this being paid for.  The new increase in troops is going to cost the United States an extra $30 billion a year.  So far there is no concrete plan as to how the cost is being dealt with.  Some democrats are trying to purpose a war tax to help to cover the expense.  However other democrats and most of the republicans strongly oppose this idea.  So it looks like the money is going to be loaned to us and added to the national deficit.

The idea of a war tax is a good idea, but bad timing.  The last thing American citizens want right now, during this continuing economic downturn, is an increase in their taxes.  I feel like an increase in taxes right now would lower people’s opinion of the surge.  On the other hand an increase in our national deficit is not going to garner citizens support for the surge either.