Rachel F.'s AP US Govt. Blog

1. Why do conservatives want to hold this event at Cal-Berkeley? Perhaps they hope to change the minds of an audience that will listen to the ideas presented by the Free Speech Week speakers. More likely, they want to hold it at this school because it is considered a highly liberal environment that strongly rejects conservative ideas, so conservatives expect retaliation that will make their opponents look bad. 2. What is the initial position a public university should take when they get a request to host a speaker? They should allow them regardless of the speaker and how he or she is seen. They then need to consider the logistics of the requested location and time. 3. What are "content neutral" rules? These regulations prevent officials from telling the organizers to change their plans based on what point of view they are presenting. The decision must be based on other logical factors such as the capacity of the requested space. 4. In what ways might there b...

1. How popular were Clinton and Trump compared to past candidates for president? They are the least popular candidates on record. Trump is most disliked, and Clinton is second most disliked. The negative attitudes toward them led to campaigns where each candidate tried to make people hate the other candidate more rather than like him or herself more. 2. How much did minor party voting increase from 2012 to 2016? It increased significantly, with Stein and Johnson receiving shares of votes that were over 3 times more than in 2012. 3. How did Clinton's negative attacks on Trump, combined with minor party candidates, end up hurting her? These factors influenced people who preferred her to Trump to vote for the third party candidates instead. 4. How did Trump compare to Romney in 2012 among white voters? Trump did a little worse than Romney, pulling in 58% of the white voters compared to Romney's 59%. 5. How did Clinton compare to Obama in 2012 among the differ...

1. What percentage of Americans voted in the 2012 election?  What percentage of registered voters voted in the 2012 election? 58.6 percent of eligible American voters actually voted in the 2012 presidential election. 84 percent of registered voters voted. 2. How do state requirements to register ahead of time prevent people from voting?  Primarily, people miss the deadline for registering to vote because most states require people to register much earlier than election day when many do not care about the election yet. Some people become ineligible due to state requirements on residency or criminal history. 3. What reason do most people give for not participating in the election? They say that their votes won't matter. They say they are disinterested or disliked candidates. 4. How do families and upbringing impact voter turnout in the future? In richer families, parents tell their children that voting is a responsibility that does matter, so they grow up to p...

1. Why is President Trump  taking action over Labor Day Weekend? A group of Republican state legislatures planned to sue the national government over the constitutionality of the DACA program. 2. Who was the DREAM Act intended to benefit? It was to provide a way to get citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who arrived in America as children. 3. What did DACA do to help these same people? DACA didn't provide a path to citizenship, but it did allow them to apply for and receive two year periods of work permits and protection from deportation. 4. What requirements do people have to meet in order to be eligible for DACA? They must have arrived in the U.S. before 2007, under 15 years of age at time of arrival, and under 31 years of age when DACA was created in 2012. They are also required to have no criminal offenses and either to have a high school diploma (or equivalent) or be working towards one. 5. How was the original DREAM Act a compromise on the immigration iss...