Commentary on Colleague's Blog

When reading Hannah McKenzie's Political Parties blog, I was able to see the connections she made and agreed fully with them. I made a point in my commentary on the U.S. Government about the gridlock Congress has found themselves in due to political party division and what kind of effect Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would have on fixing this problem. However, McKenzie makes a great point by starting with George’s Washington warnings against political parties and how they allow people to gather with others who share similar ideals, morals, and values. Yet, McKenzie also makes a great point that political parties have the potential to destroy our country. Something which seems to already be occurring with Congress’s inability to make political decisions due to party devotions and fixed votes. How is this something that can be fixed? The majority of Americans don’t associate themselves with a specific party because Republicans and Democrats are on opposite sides of the spectrum, yet there are many that fall on spectrum somewhere on the middle either leaning left or right. It is important for our country to realize that if we truly want the people to have the power to elect, then there has to be more options. There has to be more education for the lower class. There has to be more encouragement towards the younger generations to vote as that our younger generation votes less than the older generations. This is a problem for the future of our country, it makes it increasingly more difficult to make modern changes when the older generation makes the decisions (when it comes to voting). Of that older generation, they don’t want change as much as the younger generation does. The older generation finds comfort in falling into the liberal or conservative categories or the Democrat or Republican parties. While our generation do not agree with the idea of a binary party system (for the most part). I think it’s important that when this topic is brought up, that all factors be introduced and all possibilities be considered.

Commentary on U.S. Government

Our government is about to experience a great deal of change dependent on the result of the 2016 Presidential election. Many people consider what would happen to the United States if Donald Trump won, of those people, specifically the ones that do not support Trump, don't feel optimistic about the future of our country. There is a great fear of retrogression that surrounds Trump's campaign including his plans for policy changes, Trump's foreign policy being one of the more concerning issues. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton struggle to gain the support and trust of those that don't follow her, due to her involvement with scandals in the past as first lady to Bill Clinton and the "email" scandal. Some people see this as a choice between two evils and deciding which candidate is the worse of the two evils. Either way, our country will be going through drastic changes whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump wins the presidency. Especially regarding policy changes, whether it is public, foreign, or commerce policy. With the recent Brexit, how will that markets change? How will trade change? Then there is the Syrian Refugees issue. Many believe that it will make the U.S. look bad if Donald enforces his policy of refusing refugees during such a somber crisis. Another issue that the U.S. Government has been facing for a couple years now is Congress and the strong gridlock it has found itself in. Will Hillary or Trump be able to break this gridlock or will one of them simply make it worse? With this being one of the most interesting presidential races, our country is in for big changes and one can only hope that they will turn out for the better.

Legalize Cannabis Commentary

In Madison Bush Couch's blog post Legalize Cannabis, there were many valid, if not strong, arguments on why cannabis should be legalized. I feel one of the main issues that states' have with legalizing Marijuana has a lot to do with the economy, along with racial and partisan divisions within the state. The fact is, almost half of the United States has already made some sort of progression towards legalizing Marijuana to an extent, whether that follows decriminalizing possession or allowing medicinal/recreational use. Couch focuses the importance of Cannabis being used as a medicinal drug by arguing about its wide spectrum of diseases and pain that can be treated, without the concern of addiction that is usually a problem with prescription drugs. This was a major point made by Couch that I can fully agree with, the danger of prescription drugs and the importance of having awareness about them, her specific example being Xanax. I surprisingly know a lot of people that are prescribed Xanax, yet I feel like Xanax could be easily replaced with Marijuana due to it's similar side effects, the only difference being that Marijuana has been known to cause paranoia in some cases. Either way, the drugs that are legal in this country do as much, if not more, damage than what Cannabis has the ability to do. I believe everything can be dangerous if and when it's mixed with other drugs or alcohol, so that is not a strong argument against the legalization of Marijuana. Overall, I felt persuaded and in agreement with a lot of what Couch said in her post. It was informative, argumentative, and brought up valid points about the holes in our country's health system and the holes in the arguments against Cannabis.