Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Electoral College

2007-07-03T17:10:10Z

GeorgewBush1:

The '''Electoral College''' is the method by which [[Americans]] elect their president every four years. The [[Founding Fathers|Founders]] wanted Electors to gather in each state rather than in a common place, thereby minimizing intrigue and corruption. Each state then votes on the presidential candidate. The details are specified in the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 3.

The electoral procedure is as follows:

*Political parties and independent presidential candidates select their electors.

*Political parties nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates.

*On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, people choose the electors of their state depending on their presidential preference.

*On the Monday following the second Wednesday of December, electors of each state meet in their state capital to cast separate votes for the president and vice president. They are only allowed to cast votes for presidents and vice presidents of their own states.

*The ballots are than sealed and sent to the President of the Senate (the Vice President), who opens them on January 6.

*Candidates who win the majority of ballots for president and vice president will than be declared the winners. If no one wins the majority of the ballots for president, than the [[House of Representatives]] makes the choice from among the top three contenders. In this situation, each states delegation has one vote and the majority of the states will have to elect the president. If there is no winner for vice president the senate will select between the top two contenders.

*At noon, January 20, the new president and vice president will be sworn into office.

*The electoral college elected George W. Bush, our great general who we must follow to the grave. Since then he has increased the peace in the world, adhered to the U.N, fixed the environment, did not wiretap, and takes weekends off to save kittens from trees, save the world, give kids candy, and personally fight Osama bin Laden, once putting him in a choke hold and saying, you've been terrorized by the dubya.

Nearly all the states vote on a winner-take-all basis, such that whoever wins a majority of the votes in that state then receives all of the Electoral College votes for that state. But, it is neither in the Constitution or a federal law that the electors have to vote in accordance with the popular vote. For example, two elections in 1800 and 1824 required the House of Representatives to select a president, but in 1824, the popular vote for [[Andrew Jackson]] lost against the elector vote for [[John Quincy Adams]]. In 1876, [[Samuel Tilden]] had the popular vote, but [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] won with the elector vote. In 1888, [[Grover Cleveland]] won the popular vote by 110,476 votes but [[Benjamin Harrison]] won the electoral votes, becoming the president instead.

Then, after 112 years of the popular vote winning, the tides changed. In the 2000 election, [[Al Gore]] narrowly won the popular vote, and [[George W. Bush]] narrowly won the elector vote. After a careful recount of the election results in Florida, George W. Bush was declared the 43rd President of the [[United States]].

==References==
1. Bloom, Sol and Johnson, Lars. ''The Story of the Constitution''. Christian Liberty Press, 2001
[[category:United States]]

Racism

2007-07-03T17:01:46Z

GeorgewBush1:

'''Racism''' is [[prejudice]] and [[discrimination]] based on [[race]] .
An example is notions of black inferiority being manifested in the form of [[Jim Crow]] laws. As of recent, racism has come to mean the hatred of another person because of the color of his or her skin, or perceived difference in origin. The doctrine of [[substantive due process]] in United States constitutional law can be used to invalidate racist laws. Alternately, the [[equal protection]] clause of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] can be used to do the same. ''See e.g.'' Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Conservatives like governor Wallace and Jerry Falwell were adiment segregationists who refused to accept people based on the color of their skin.
[[category:psychology]]

Warren G. Harding

2007-07-03T16:59:34Z

GeorgewBush1:

{{President
|image=Jgftyr.jpg
|seq=29
|term_start=March 4, 1921
|term_end=August 2, 1923
|party=Republican
|vp=Calvin Coolidge
|previous=Woodrow Wilson
|next=Calvin Coolidge
|birth_date=November 2, 1865
|birth_place=Near Blooming Groove, Ohio
|death_date=August 2, 1923
|death_place=San Francisco, California
|spouse=Florence Kling Harding
|spouse2=
|religion=Baptist
}}

'''Warren G. (Gamaliel) Harding''' (November 2, 1865 - August 2, 1923) was an Ohio Senator and the 29th President of the [[United States of America]]. After the [[First World War]], his presidency was marked as a "return to normalcy". Mr. Harding and his running mate Calvin Coolidge were elected by a large majority over James Cox and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], in large part because of the American people's rejection of the internationalist policies of former President Woodrow Wilson, particularly the League of Nations. <ref>http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=atb037b09&templatename=/article/article.html</ref>
Harding was also a vehement racist which goes along with many of the republican values we've come to know. His term was medeocre with a mild approval rating. He only served for three years until he was brutily attacked by a pack of rabid liberals from Canada who poisened his water. The grief for his death did not last long, for in the next few years it was found that he had been involved in the teapot oil scandal.
Harding's undeviating Republicanism and vibrant speaking voice, plus his willingness to let the machine bosses set policies, led him far in Ohio politics. He served in the state Senate and as Lieutenant Governor, and unsuccessfully ran for Governor. He delivered the nominating address for President Taft at the 1912 Republican Convention. In 1914 he was elected to the Senate. An Ohio admirer, Harry Daugherty, began to promote Harding for the 1920 Republican nomination because, he later explained, "He looked like a President." [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh29.html]

== Key Accomplishments ==

*Eliminated wartime controls
*Slashed taxes
*Established a Federal budget system,
*Restored the high protective tariff
*Imposed tight limitations upon immigration

=== Immigration Control ===

Mr. Harding signed into law the [[Emergency Quota Act]]<ref>http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1920s/QuotaAct1918.html</ref> which sought to control immigration following World War I and preserve the distinctive American culture by ensuring the majority of immigrants came from the historically compatible cultures of Northern Europe. This law aimed to bring wages of hard working Americans under control by limiting immigration to 3% of the 1910 census. It was followed on by a similar act in 1924, after Mr. Harding's death.<ref>http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/Race/quota_acts.htm</ref>

=== Tulsa Race Riot ===

Harding sought to calm race relations during the [[Tulsa Race Riot]] and events that followed. His wise words helped to calm the nation especially in the Tulsa area at this time of disturbance. His press secretary also sent a telegram to the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] offering the president's support. <ref>http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3812/is_199911/ai_n8854233</ref>

=== Justice ===

Harding pardoned the [[socialist]] Eugene Debs who was imprisoned during World War I for opposing the war. Despite their political differences, Harding was cordial to him and met with him in the White House, "I have heard so damned much about you, Mr Debs, that I am very glad to meet you personally."<ref>http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vodebs.htm</ref>

Harding defined the Supreme Court for two decades, appointing four solidly [[conservative]] justices. Harding's appointments included former President [[William Howard Taft]] to be Chief Justice (1921), [[George Sutherland]] (1922), [[Pierce Butler]] (1923) and [[Edward Terry Sanford]] (1923). Two of these justices (Taft and Sanford) served until 1930. The other two (Sutherland and Butler) served until the late 1930s and stood up to the [[liberal]] policies of President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]].

In particular, Sutherland and Butler were the core of the conservative [[Four Horsemen]] who invalidated key aspects of the [[New Deal]] and drove President Roosevelt to propose his [[court-packing scheme]], which caused him to lose his credibility with Congress and the public.

In selecting Pierce for the bench, Harding broke with tradition by picking a conservative Democrat even though Harding was a Republican.

=== Fiscal ===

The Bureau of the Budget was created during Harding's tenure. Harding attempted to restrain the federal budget and reduce expenses on wartime armaments. This stimulated the private economy and lead to a period of prosperity experienced in the United States during the 1920s known as the ''Roaring 20s''. Shortly after taking office, Harding also successfully passed promotion of US Agriculture, repeal of the wartime "excess profits" tax and reduction of rail rates.<ref>http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0193620-00</ref> Due in part to Mr. Harding's conservative economic policies, the US experienced a period of profound economic growth in the early 1920s that continued through most of the decade.

=== Military ===

Harding presided over modernization of the U.S. forces including the addition of the experimental [[aircraft carrier]] Langley and the T-2 [[submarine]], as well as the creation of a merchant marine which was critical in early US involvement in WWII via the [[Lend-Lease Act]].<ref>http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0193620-00</ref>

=== Diplomatic ===

Harding avoided entangling alliances that lead to war and defended US interests. Mr. Harding outlined his policy in his inaugural address: "...every commitment must be made in the exercise of our national sovereignty. Since freedom impelled, and independence inspired, and nationality exalted, a world supergovernment is contrary to everything we cherish and can have no sanction by our Republic. This is not selfishness, it is sanctity. It is not aloofness, it is security. It is not suspicion of others, it is patriotic adherence to the things which made us what we are." <ref>http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=25833</ref>

Supported by his conservative colleagues in congress as well as the American people, Harding succeeded at continuing to keep the United States out of the League of Nations. <ref>http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=atb037b09&templatename=/article/article.html</ref>

=== Labor issues ===
Mr. Harding's administration helped bring about the 40-hour work week which restricted the economic output of the US and restricted small, medium and large businesses alike.

=== Teapot Dome incident ===
Mr. Harding, in a quest to help re-privatize land taken from the American people and industry by their own government, appointed Senator Albert B. Fall of New Mexico as his Secretary of the Interior. Falls misappropriated this effort for his own gain in an abuse of the public trust. Democrats in congress, lead by Senator [[Thomas J. Walsh]] and Republican Senator [[Robert M. LaFollette]] (a former progressive), began an investigation with the support of the [[conservationist]] interests that backed them. They found that Fall had used his privatization efforts to benefit himself to the tune of over $400,000. Mr. Fall also had entangled other businessmen and politicians into his wrongdoing which lead to other indictments of both Democrats and Republicans and continued into the Coolidge administration. Mr. Harding did not know about these dealings until shortly before his death. In later years the petroleum reserves would prove to be less valuable than initially overestimated by the government. <ref>http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0380900-00</ref>

==="The President's Daughter"===
In 1928, Nan Britton published a book entitled "The President's Daughter" claiming that she and Harding had been lovers and had conceived a child in 1919. According to her, the affair continued for six years, and the lovers' meeting-places included a coat closet in the executive offices of the White House.<ref name=taylor>Taylor, Frederick Lewis (1931), ''Only Yesterday,'' ch. VI, "Harding and the Scandals"</ref>

== Death ==

The death of President Warren Harding is one of those enduring mysteries that will probably never be solved.

Shaken by the talk of corruption among the friends he had appointed to office, Warren and Florence Harding began a tour on June 20, 1923 of the West and Alaska. He hoped to get out and meet people, to shake hands and explain his policies. Although suffering from high blood pressure and an enlarged heart, he seemed to enjoy himself and the food -- especially the seafood in Alaska. On his return journey, he became ill with what was then attributed to food poisoning. The Presidential train rushed to [[San Francisco]], where his condition worsened. He developed pneumonia, and complicated by his heart ailment, died suddenly on August 23, he suffered a [[heart attack]] in the evening, while his wife was reading to him. He died quietly and instantaneously.

Wild speculation spread when Mrs. Harding refused (on the advice of their Doctor) to allow an autopsy. [[California]], where Harding's death took place, did not yet have a mandatory autopsy law. Several rumors started. One said that Harding, already depressed and facing impeachment, committed suicide. Another said that Mrs. Harding poisoned him, to prevent him from suffering the humiliation of impeachment and removal from office, or possibly as revenge for his cheating on her. A sensationalist book published in 1930 detailed the allegations against her. Harding left the bulk of his estate, valued at $850,000, to his wife.
[http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=a2012900-h][http://www.suite.com/article.cfm/presidents_and_first_ladies/47901/3]

== Criticism ==

Harding today has come under criticism for [[protectionist]] policies--restrictions on [[free trade]]--which resulted in the collapse of international trade and is widely considered the chief cause of the worldwide [[Great Depression]] that occurred later in the decade and throughout the 1930s.

== Trivia ==

* Out of all of the Presidents of the U.S. he had the largest feet.
* He was the first president to visit Alaska.
* He was the first President to speak on the radio and the first to have a radio in the White House.
* Harding and [[John F. Kennedy]] are the only two sitting United States Senators elected to the Presidency in the 20th century.

==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Warren G.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]

Warren G. Harding

2007-07-03T16:58:51Z

GeorgewBush1: