The rights in the bill of rights

The rights in the bill of rights

The rights in the bill of rights ensure citizens have the freedom and shield them from any form of inappropriate government action. The Bill of Rights assured a private domain of personal liberty without government limitations. However, no amendment apart from the first one protects the citizens against the national government. Barron v. Baltimore established a dual citizenship concept arguing that people were citizens of both national and state governments separately, meaning that the bill did not apply to the states. (“Chapter 8: The Federal Courts | American Government, Brief 12E: W. W. Norton Studyspace”) The 14th Amendment emphasised that states were limited to develop any laws that deprive the liberty of citizens of the US. Also, no state was allowed to deny any person prosperity or wellbeing without following legal procedures. However, the supreme court proceeded with its application approach of dual citizenship, promoting selectiveness, and the Bill of Rights was incorporated into the 14th amendment selectively per case. During the 1960s, a good number of rights, such as rights concerning privacy, became nationalised, thus broadening the strength of the national government.

Jim Crow law refers to laws that promoted segregation based on race in the south between the period of the final stages of reconstruction around 1877 and 1950( Urofsky). The name referred to a minstrel routine performance in early 1928. This name was later adopted to characterise African Americans in a degrading manner and used to describe the nature of segregation in their livelihoods. The establishment of these laws was to prevent black men from participating in elections, preventing marriages between different races, and putting a distinction among different races in public. In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson then President of the U.S approved the civil rights Act which was a law that brought segregation institutionalised by the Jim Crow laws. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act protected minorities and allowed them to vote, and in 1968, the Fair Housing Act further minimised segregation by providing equality rights in renting and purchasing homes. This law brought an end to De jure segregation, which refers to discrimination supported by the law. However, this did not stop De facto segregation, which cannot be eliminated by legal means since perceptions in people’s minds about white superiority remained. Many white people secluded themselves into suburbs to avoid black people. This led to the development of suburbs such as vanilla.

Federalism was brought about by the constitution, and it gave powers to the federal government and put aside powers for the states that the national government couldn’t control. Federalism led to the existence of a national government that had limitations brought about by the law. Among the powers that the states had over the national government involved protecting citizen’s rights. Leaders in several states in the south thought that rights concerning slave ownership were under the state and not the national government. Leaders from these regions, therefore, distanced themselves from the union in a bid to safeguard citizens’ ability to own slaves. These moves by leaders led to the delayed extension of civil rights to blacks in the US. The thirteenth amendment constitutionalized president Lincolns’ emancipation proclamation. The 13th amendment December 6, 1865, made the supreme court’s verdict in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), which had declared African Americans as noncitizens with no rights void and null. This amendment allowed congress to prohibit slavery with proper laws. In 1865 Civil Rights bill clearly defined what citizenship entailed and granted civil rights to African Americans

Political parties are created by a collection of people who have common ideas about how the country should be governed. Particular principles guide political party government policies. Political parties aim to possess the power of governing a government or a state. Political parties, therefore, play several roles, which include making opinions, checking political parties in power, pushing forward candidates, acting as the link between people and leadership, and suggesting essential governmental programs. In the absence of political parties, today’s representative democracy becomes difficult to attain. Parties give citizens means of acting politically. They put together several interests, goals, and perspectives, and they are responsible for the recruitment of able politicians. Benefits that come with political parties include: encouraging public participation, creating checks and balance in terms of negotiating and coming up with laws. Political parties also distribute information in society. Harmful aspects of political parties, on the other hand, include: political parties can promote polarisation, political parties do not promote individuality, and this waters down personal opinions held by leaders. Political parties are also prone to corruption

The two parties system existence can because of the  U.S elections structure whereby one seat is connected to a geographical district, therefore, resulting in domination of only two major parties. Even though there may be other alternative candidates on the ballot, voters have the belief that small parties stand no chance of securing even one seat. They, therefore, end up voting for aspirants coming from the major political parties. Among the 535 members of the senate and house, only a few of them come from minor parties. Winner takes it all systems for choosing leaders. Duverger’s law states that plurality systems of the voting result in two parties’ domination. Even though parties are organised nationally, and election operations have an impact on the organisation of parties nationally, their underlying mechanism plays a key role at the stage where the positions are allocated to the political parties elections in the U.S use plurality voting approach and in this approach a candidate can win the election even without gaining a majority provided he gets the most votes. Runners up in an election do not get rewarded. Therefore parties that lack many followers to enable them to emerge top in most cases are nowhere to be seen since their supporters lose hope of winning elections(The Two-Party System | American Government, 2020). The inability of minor parties to win in the past make the voters reluctant to vote for them. In the U.S presidential system, the candidate does not become a winner through the direct popular vote but instead selected by the electoral college, and the winner takes it all system still applies in this case.

Works Cited

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“Advantages And Disadvantages Of Political Parties.” Vittana.org. N.p., 2020. Web. 28 Apr. 2020.

“Chapter 8: The Federal Courts | American Government, Brief 12E: W. W. Norton Studyspace.” Wwnorton.com. N.p., 2020. Web. 28 Apr. 2020.

“The Two-Party System | American Government.” Courses.lumenlearning.com. N.p., 2020. Web. 28 Apr. 2020.

Urofsky, Melvin. “Jim Crow Law – Homer Plessy And Jim Crow.” Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p., 2020. Web. 28 Apr. 2020.

“What Are De Jure And De Facto Segregation? – Edupedia.” Edupedia. N.p., 2020. Web. 28 Apr. 2020.