FEDERALIST NO. 51

"Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of the individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects; and this may be presumed to depend on the extent of the country and number of people comprehended under the same government."

What I think he is trying to say in this passage is that all authority or government system would depend on the society itself. He says that the society will be broken down into many parts and classes of citizens. The rights of the minority wouldn't be threatened by the majority. He states that in a free government the peoples civil rights will be the same as those with religious rights. I think what he also tries to say is that the extent in which the government would go with its rights and regulations would depend on the number of its civilians. 

I chose this passage because it had a lot of information on the rights of a society. It was difficult to comprehend but I grasped the main idea of it. 

FEDERALIST NO.10

"Madison makes it clear that the purposes of the federal government, or the Union, the union of all the states is beneficial because it will best control the effects of "factions." Today we would call them "special interests" but the meaning is the same. Sometimes, people seem to think that the U.S. government was founded by moral idealists but on the contrary the founders seemed to have a very pessimistic view of human conduct."

What I think Madison is trying to say in this passage is that the purpose of the government is for good cause and beneficial to the people. He says that the government will best control the effects of factions, meaning the people do need someone to have control over them to avoid chaos. He also states that the founders of the U.S. government seemed to have a very "pessimistic view of human conduct" in which I believe he is trying to say that they observed human conduct and by their observations believed humans needed someone above them to take charge and have control over broad actions and make rules to keep everyone and everything under control.

I chose this passage because it was one that I was able to break down to myself. What I found interesting in this passage was what Madison said about the founders view on human conduct. I've never thought in debt about the founders and why they came up with what they came up with. This specific passage made me think and understand why they would have come up with the system of a government. They must have seen how humans conducted themselves and the way towns were run with out a government and saw that there had to be some time of control over the people.

PASSAGE FROM TRANS-NATIONAL AMERICA

"We are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign born, and if distinctions are made between us they should rightly be on some other ground than indigenousness." This line was taken from Randolph Bourne's essay "Trans-national America" I very much agree with this statement he made. If we really think about it, the real "Americans" are the Native Americans who were here way before any of us or the colonist who came to this country and "discovered America" So many of us here were born in the country but we are ALL here because of our descendants who were born in other countries and came to the new found land, America. Often times immigrants or "foreigners" are discriminated against or expected to become "Americanized" but why should they? Why are they any different then those who came to this country decades ago? This statement is saying if any differences are to be made between us  they should not be based on where we come from when everyone in this country comes from somewhere else.

The reason why I chose to write about this passage is because it was one line that stood out to me and I strongly agree with it. I personally have faced occasions where I've been treated like a foreigner when I was born in this country. Like many others, my parents came here from another country, but what makes me any less American then the next person who was also born here? What people need to realized which is stated in this passage is as Bourne says, WE ARE ALL DESCENDANTS OF FOREIGN BORN. 

Despite negativity, Americans mixed on ideal role of Gov't

The passage I chose is the one about American's feelings on the role of the government. Displayed in the passage are many surveys showing us what American's feel about the governments power. What I noticed when looking at all of the surveys is for the most part Americans believe the government was too much power in every aspect questioned. Newport also brings taxes into account. In the passage he says 56% of Americans would be willing to pay less in taxes and accept fewer services. This stat interested me the most because it made me wonder which category I would have been in. Of course I would love to pay less taxes just like that 56% of Americans do, but then I wonder if we were to get our way with that one, how would it affect America? We sometimes tend to be negative towards the government and think they do and take too much; but how would things be if they did less?

I chose this passage because I was very interested to see what other Americans feel about our governments power. Before reading this article I was with the majority of the votes (those who voted the government has too much power) because I've always felt the government does too much, takes too much, and does a lot of unnecessary things. I've always felt they have too much control and take too much from the working class to spend on things they want to do that in no way help me or to just give away to those who don't do anything at all but collect. But after reading this article, and seeing some people vote the government has the right amount or too little amount of power, made me try to think as to why they would feel that way. Then I got to wondering how much different things would be if the government in fact had less power and gave more power to the people. Would it be a good thing or a bad thing? Would the economy rise or fall? Would things get out of control? Then it made me think maybe it is best for the government to remain with the power that they have simply to avoid chaos.