Historical Analogy of the Democratic Party’s position in the Southern Region of America Essay Example for Free

Historical Analogy of the Democratic Party’s position in the Southern Region of America Essay America’s Democratic Party is one of the country’s two major political parties. The organization has a long history, but when compared to the Democratic Party of 1792, today’s party is very different. The Democratic Party was founded in the 1790’s by Thomas Jefferson, who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson became the first Democratic President of the United States in 1800. Over next 70 years, as the organization grew, so did its support in the South. After the end of the Civil War in 1865, African Americans favored the Republican Party and its anti-slavery views, while the Democratic majority was Southern Whites, who were not in favor of political rights for former slaves (Grantham, 1992). In 1868, Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, was elected President with the help of African American Republicans, who were voting in a presidential election for the first time. During Grant’s presidency, the Radical Republicans introduced the15th Amendment, which stated that a right to vote could not be denied because of â€Å"race, color, or previous condition of servitude† (Carnes Garraty, 2006, p. 434) Over the years, the Democratic Party has left behind many of its old principles and ideals, especially with today’s presence of African Americans in the party. The Democrats once maintained the support of White Southerners by backing Jim Crow laws and supporting racial Historical Analogy 2 egregation, but today, the majority of African Americans vote for the Democratic ticket (Aldrich, 1995). African Americans began to shift from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in the 1940s, despite the Democrats opposition to 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to â€Å"all persons born or naturalized in the United States† (Carnes Garraty, 2006, p. 430). In the election of 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, added civi l rights to his party platform. As a result, Roosevelt and the Democratic Party gained support from African American voters (Aldrich, 1995). Today, the majority of African Americans are registered as Democrats. John Kerry carried 89% of the African American vote in the 2004 presidential election, and African Americans continue to gain more political position in the Democratic Party (Wenner, 2004). In 2008, the Democrats nominated Illinois Senator Barack Obama, as its presumptive presidential nominee, solidifying Obama’s place in history as the first African American to be a major political partys presumptive nominee for President of the United States. For almost a century after the end of the Civil War, the Democratic Party had a strong presence in the Southern region of America. From 1880 to 1960, the region was known as the â€Å"Solid South† because Democrats won by large margins in the area (Grantham, 1992). The Solid South began to come apart when President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, began supporting the civil rights movement (Black Black, 2003). Following Roosevelt’s path, civil rights was a part of Truman’s 1948 Democratic platform, used at the Democratic National Convention. Historical Analogy 3 As a result of Truman’s endorsement of the civil rights movement, which included adopting a resolution to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, many conservative Southern Democrats walked out of the National Convention and left the Democratic Party (Aldrich, 1995). The Democratic support of the civil rights movement significantly reduced Southern support for the Democratic Party and allowed the Republican Party to step in and gain a little success in the South. In the 1950s, the Southern Democrats, who opposed the Democratic Party’s support of the civil rights movement, formed the Dixiecrat Party, which was led by then-Governor of South Carolina, Strom Thurmond. When the Dixiecrat Party proved to be unsuccessful, Thurmond and many other former Southern Democrats switched to the Republican Party. â€Å"Thurmond, a tenacious champion of unreconstructed conservatism, abandoned the Democratic Party to become the first Republican senator from the Deep South in the twentieth century† (Black Black, 2003, p. 1) The Republican Party’s strength in the South grew during the election of 1964. Although Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat won the election, he did not carry the five states of the Solid South, which included Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama (Aldrich, 1995). The Deep South states provided an electoral victory to the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater. It was the first time since Reconstruction that a Republican carried the South in a presidential election (Carnes Garraty, 2006). Johnson and the Democrats continued to lose support in the South by supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After signing the landmark legislation, Johnson said to his aide, Bill Moyers, Historical Analogy 4 I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come (Grantham, 1992, p. 12). As support for the Democrats in the South dwindled, in 1968 election Republican candidate Richard Nixon used â€Å"Southern Strategy,† to capitalize in the election (Carnes and Garraty, 2006, p. 810). Nixon used a method that attracted the former Southern Democrats, who were still conservative and supported segregation. With his strategy, Nixon defeated the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey, in the election. The era of the Solid South proved to be over, with the Democratic candidate only carrying one Southern state in 1968 election (Dewey, 1992). The Republican’s strategy to win voters in the South alienated African American voters from the Republican Party and pulled in more Southern Whites, who did not support integration, which was favored by the Democratic Party. Over time, Southern White voters continued to support the Republican Party. Today the Democratic Party is no longer the dominant party in the South. The South is now considered a stronghold of the Republican Party. In 2000, presidential candidate Al Gore received no electoral votes from the South, and neither did John Kerry in the following election in 2004 (Wenner, 2004). As the Democratic Party‘s strength weakens in the South, the opposite is happening in the Northern region of America. The Democratic Party was weak in North from the 1880s to the 1960s, when the organization controlled the South, but it is now strongest in the Northeast (Black and Black, 2003). In the 2004 election, all nine Northeastern states, from Pennsylvania to Maine, voted for the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards (Wenner, 2004. Historical Analogy 5 From supporting slavery in the 1800s to supporting its first African American presidential candidate in 2008, the Democratic Party has evolved. Despite going through name changes, leaders and incarnations over the years, the Democratic Party has retained its same basic values. It prides itself on being the party for the working people, but as Americaâ₠¬â„¢s view of who was entitled to be a referred to as the working people has changed, so did the views of Democratic Party.

Sharing Music over the Internet :: Digital Media Sharing

In a report prepared by Arbor Networks, a network-management firm employed by over 70 percent of the top ISPs globally, peer-to-peer sharing has reached more than 60 percent of the net traffic in the year 2012. Peer-to-peer sharing and piracy websites allow internet users to download music, videos and programs without having to pay for them. Technically, this is described by the law as stealing which makes peer-to-peer sharing and piracy websites illegal. Moreover, the government, through the enforcement of certain laws, imposes discipline to its citizens with regard to downloading and sharing music over the internet. Copyright Infringement The Department of Justice of the U.S. government presented a report Task Force on Intellectual Property which clearly imparts the laws protecting intellectual properties of individuals. As stated in the report, an intellectual property is an intangible property which is expressed through ideas and inventions. Copyright is intended to protect these intellectual properties including music—its lyrics and composition. Through the Copyright Act, the creator is given exclusive rights which encompass credit until after 70 years from death and the option of distribution. In peer-to-peer sharing and free downloads where music is used commercially in the internet, copyright is violated. In fact, as the shown in the statistics above, copyright infringement is practiced by millions in just one day. Probably, these people do not know and fully understand the laws and the penalties such as fines and imprisonment if they commit copyright infringement. Piracy The music industry, as represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has gone procedures in fighting both copyright infringement and piracy. Accordingly, as shown in the report of Arbor Networks, the overwhelming 40 percent of net traffic that shares music through peer-to-peer connection has rapidly decreased to just 18 percent in the year 2009. RIAA has sued internet fans who commit infringement. Furthermore, the association has also presented piracy surcharges on ISPs which offer an upgrade to peer-to-peer connections for fast downloads at a fee, and websites which provide free searches and downloads for music. Government’s Response To stop piracy and copyright infringement, the Congress commenced the â€Å"Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003†. As stated in this bill, the Congress appeals to the Department of Justice, along with the FBI, to involve their departments in discovering peer-to-peer file sharers and taking legal actions against them.

Definition of Communication Essay

Introduction Whenever we interact with other people, intentional or unintentional, we communicate; because of its abstract nature, the concept of communication is difficult to define. If one remembers Communication Theory as a Field (Craig 1999), we gain insight into the scientific fields of communication, on how diverse the fields of study actually are. With such diversity among theorists’ approaches to communication, it is even harder to get a single definition standing, at least within academia. The devil is in the details; however some argue that it is rather impractical to study a subject that isn’t well defined. A First Look At Communication Theory (Griffin 2012) offers a working definition. (Griffin 2012:6) states â€Å"Communication is the relational process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a response†. But does this definition of what communication is suffice in the light of what the different theorists argue it is? This will be the main focus of my paper. I find it most reasonable to approach this question with two communication theories with different fundamental approaches to communication. In order to cover both the interpretive and objective theoretical approach, I will discuss the definition in relation to Constructivism and Semiotics. The Definition The definition consists of five parts: messages, creation of Messages, interpretation of Messages, A Relational Process, and Messages that elicits a response (Griffin 2012:6-9). â€Å"Messages are the very core of communication study.† (Griffin 2012:6). The creation of messages is the implication that messages is usually not randomly generated (constructed, invented, planned, crafted, constituted, selected, or adopted (Griffin 2012:7)). A message does not hold a meaning in and of itself; e.g. there is a differentiation between the words and the meaning. Communication is considered a process, because it functions in a contextual sense. In addition, it is a relational phenomenon because it involves two or more participants and affects their connection. And lastly, if a message fails to initiate any reactions, it would be ironic to call it communication according to Griffin. Constructivism Constructivism approaches communication from the psychological perspective, focusing on cognitive competence in interpersonal communication (Griffin 2012:98). The level of interactional competence is determined by the sophistication of the actor’s social perception skills, and their ability to analyze the social situation (the cognitive complexity of an actor (Griffin 2012:99)). The cognitive complexity is reflected in the communication process through the effectiveness of person-centered messages. â€Å"†¦ the capacity to produce highly person-centered messages has been assessed by having participants generate messages in response to standard situations and then coding these messages within hierarchical schemes for the degree of person centeredness manifested. For example, messages seeking to persuade others have been coded for the extent to which the goals and desires of the target are taken into account.† (Brant R. Burleson, Scott E. Caplan 1998:II,B) In a constructivist view, the communication process is more goal-oriented than relational. Constructing the message in a communicational context is in and of itself an intention to get an anticipated or desired reaction. â€Å"The perception and processing of others’ intentional efforts to convey some internal state–may be viewed as a special case of social perception† (Brant R. Burleson, Scott E. Caplan 1998:II,C). The addressed uses a received message as input in the process of structuring their response. The effectiveness of a response is directly correlated to the message’s goal related structure, and the cognitive complexity and perception skills of both addresser and addressed. Semiology Semiotics is the study of signs; it involves the production and the analysis of socially attributed meaning to an object. The semiologist Roland Barthes focused his research on signs we use in communication (Griffin 2012:332). In Mythologies (Roland Barthes 2009) we see that Barthes’ perspective on communication is broader than the interpersonal level, focusing more on abstract connotations and mythical signs in a cultural context. He argues that reality is converted into speech through human history; therefore there are no eternal meanings (Roland Barthes 2009:132). Concordantly, the meaning of a sign can shift as time progresses, an original sign could become a denotation for something else through the semiotic process. The creation of meaning of signs is then not only an individual process; it is also a conjunction and ongoing process of communication and human history. Barthes offers a semantic explanation, in his example of wrestling, to the reactions of the audience towards the wrestlers (Roland Barthes 2009:11-12). Arguing that, with French wrestling, different connotations around the mythical sign of â€Å"justice† were at interplay. So in the process of interpretation; Meaning can be implicit. Unconsciously perceived as connotative factor(s) to what is consciously noticed, and then reacted upon. Directly applying the points of discussion Extending the commonalities and differences between the two theoretical views, with Griffin’s definition, some points are very clear. Both view messages as the core instrument in communication and see it as a process. Both agree that if no reaction is elicited in any way, then the function of the message initially failed. The circumstances thereof are different in each point of view. However the aspects of messages in each theoretical view are defined in such a fashion; without a response of any kind, it would be a contradiction to refer to them as such (If we, of course, interpret messages that elicit a response to include apathetic responses). On the points of objection, it seems mostly to be a case of â€Å"weighing the words†, when viewed by either theoretical lens. As an example: on the point of a relational process, constructivists might prefer â€Å"goal-oriented† rather than relational. Or from Barthes’ perspective, adding a concept of creating mea ning as a result of communication to the definition. Conclusion The outlined approaches in this paper of constructivism and semiotics, display clear differences in the assumptions, focus-points and explanations of communication. However their general outlook does not, in any significant way, object to Griffin’s working definition. I think this outcome qualifies the definition as sufficient, as a practical tool when studying communication. The evident boundary of my paper however, is the lack of other major theoretical lenses in the subject. Further work needs to be done in order to conduct a more unified definition. References Barthes, R. (2009). Mythologies. London: Vintage Classics. 3-14 and 131-144 Craig, R.T. (1999). Communication theory as a field. Communication Theory, 9, 119-161. Griffin, E. (2011). A First Look at Communication Theory. 8th edition. New York: McGraw Hill. J. C. McCroskey, J. A. Daly, & M. M. Martin (Eds.). (1998). Communication and Personality: Trait Perspectives. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton, pp. 233-286, Website: Presshttp://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/wrightr/const/bu98b.htm#II.B.%20CC%20and%20%E2%82%ACMessage%20Production%E2%82%AC

Biblical Worldview Of Christian Counseling - 911 Words

Biblical Worldview Christian counseling is based on faith, in God the Father, His son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit; with the belief that mankind is created in the image of God. According to, Genesis 1:27 (NIV) â€Å"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.† With this being said, the worldview of the counselor will determine and lead them in all of the decision making process with the client. â€Å"Human beings are created in the image of God and thus possesses personality, self-transcendence, intelligence, morality, gregariousness, and creativity† (Alban Jr., 2012, p. 55). The counselor will function in these qualities as God has designed within the counseling sessions. Personality and Self-Transcendence For instance, while counseling with a client the counselor’s personality can make or break the client/counselor relationship. 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