Essential Question Chapter 3: 3 and 4

What are the underlying values of the following American ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism and socialism? What is the ideological breakdown of the american population?

Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional values and the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all.  It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Libertarians believe in individual freedom without government interference and socialism is believing the everyone should work together, equally, for the benefit of all and the the government should control industry.



2012 Voter Breakdown

Energy Political Cartoon Analysis

The political cartoon above shows what the "true cost" of oil really is. Oil being a very limited resource, its supply affects the whole world. From the ecosystem to wars with other countries. In this cartoon, a man is refilling his car and is looking at the oil prices, all of which have very serious consequences. The BP oil spill damaged very badly the Gulf of Mexico, the demand for oil can threaten our National Security and drilling for oil hurts the global ecosystem. The use of vehicles today is damaging the world by changing the global climate leading to global warming. With the world climate changing and wars breaking out over the supply of oil, new and clean sources of energy are needed. Many steps in the right direction are being made in solar, wind and tidal energy uses in the US today, but in order to keep our planet from further damage, places around the world must start taking more care for the environment and seek out cleaner sources of energy. 

Bipartisanship Called For. Will it stick?

In both Gov. Romeny's and President Obama's speeches, they called for bipartisanship. I think this was a strategy used by both parties to try and reunite the nation and keep peoples' anger about the election at bay. After months of both sides arguing fiercely for their ideals, I think the call for bipartisanship was used to calm the the two parties. I think that in the future, politics will not be more bipartisan because it never really has been which is why not a lot gets done in congress. Even if the President calls for bipartisanship does not mean it is going to happen.

Check out the speeches here:

Obama's Acceptance Speech

Romney's Concession Speech

2012 Federal Elections

President Obama was reelected for a second term in office. His opponent Gov. Mitt Romney gave him a very close race but the battle was won in the battle ground states like Ohio and Florida. According to the CNN Exit Polls, Mitt was very successful in getting the white votes. He had 59% of the white votes, most of which came from white males. Obama had an overwhelmingly turnout and support from the minority voters. He received 93% of the african american votes, a very high percentage in a Presidential Election. As expected, Gov. Romeny gained support from the higher class while Obama had support from the middle and lower classes. According to The New York Times, Obama was reelected due to his support from women, hispanics and youth voters. Before the election, it was said that conservatives were more "fired up" about the upcoming election and that their turnout would good, but after the election, it is clear their enthusiasm was out matched by liberal voters as Obama won the popular vote.

2012 Presidential Debate Santos (Romney) vs. Klender (Obama)

Obama takes on Romney 

With the election coming up in one day, the president battles the challenger Governor Mitt Romney (Santos) in a heated debate. In his opening speak Govenor Romney focused his goals for getting America back on its feet while the President defended her (Klender) presidency. She plans to cut spending while raising taxes for high income families while lowering the taxes on the lower and middle classes. In doing so, boost the economy form the middle out. Romney plans to cut taxes for all and close the loopholes in the tax system to provide for a bigger tax base. By easing the tax burden, America can grow in entrepreneurship and work its way out of the economic crisis we are currently in. In regards to jobs, Romney wants to to promote the use of domestic energy to create jobs while Obama plans to use stimulus projects like public works and rebuilding roads and electrical grids to create jobs.

Obama is supportive of the Dream Act. Around 11 million illegal immigrants inhabit the US today and Obama wants to work to help legalize them because they help the economy. Gov. Romney is opposed to the Drea Act and think 11 million is way too high. He wants to improve our boarder regulations with better fences.

Romney is "a man of principle" and is against same sex marriage. He stated, "it is not a matter of tolerance, it is just a principle and I think marriage should be between a man and a woman," and that the matter of same sex marriage should be left to the states. Obama is complete on the opposite side. He is for gay marriage and thinks no one should be afraid to be with the person they love.

Energy and Interest Groups

What is an interest group? It is a group of people drawn or acting together to support and common interest or or concern. Energy in the past decade or so has had many donations of large sums of money. Since the 1990 elections cycle over $235 million has been donated to individuals and candidate in just the oil and gas industry alone. Of that money, around 75% of it was donated to republicans. Energy is also the 5th highest in lobbying spending sectors today. This year oil and gas has accumulated over $71,000,000 but is still behind electric utilities spending.

Lobbying Spending 2012

Interest Groups in Oil and Gas

Media and Energy

Energy is all over the media. News today focuses less on the importance of stories but rather what the people want to see. People would rather know what the price of gas will be than the other crisis of the world that may not apply to them. Energy is in the media a lot and its important. Every TV commercial of cars includes the new car's gas milage, and new awareness commercials have come out showing new sources of energy like wind energy. When disasters like the BP gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico occur, energy is the only thing in the media.

Gas Prices Soar After Refinery Blast

Chevrolet Volt Commercial
In this commercial the "limitations" refers the gas and having to stop and pay for it.

Energy and Federalism

Today the United States is the world's second highest consumer of energy. In 2010, the United States used up 2.17 billion tons of oil-equivalent. Oil-equivalent is all sources of energy consumed, including crude oil, natural gases and renewable energy sources like wind, solar and thermal. With such massive amounts of consumption, the government created the FERC. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an agency created to regulate the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil. The Federal Government in the past 5 years have created more and more laws to help regulate and control the amount of energy our country uses. For example the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires the lowering of all energy consumption in buildings by 3% annually or 30% by 2015 along with other energy requirements.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

New Federal Regulations and Laws as of 2007