The Electoral College

     The Electoral College was created for two reasons. First was that the rich were afraid that the poor would vote for a tyrant that could manipulate them into voting for him, because the poor outnumber the rich they use the electoral votes to control this. It could be used as a safety to make sure the "right" candidate would be chosen just in case. Also another reason is that it gave more power to the smaller states because every state gets a minimum of three votes to put in. I do not believe this system is fair because a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election if they score high enough.
     In 2000, Al Gore had won the popular vote against George W. Bush but only had 251 to Bush's 271 electoral votes so he lost the election. This just depicts how unfair the electoral college system is and that the decision of the majority of Americans can be ignored to fit a candidate for the rich.    

Head of State

          The movie Head of State satirizes real political parties throughput the movie. For instance at the fundraiser party, Mays whats to get the party going so he starts playing loud music and dancing because it was too dull and serious and was in fact not a "party". Also Mays does not wear a suit and tie during his campaign instead he wears jumpsuits and rolls around in a party bus. The person he is running against is made to look like the typical politician who just says what the people want to hear. He says god bless America for everything, sometimes avoiding the question asked.

         Gilliam evolves as a politician throughout his campaign. In the beginning he was reading off of the cards that were given to him even if he didn't believe in what he was saying. Then after talking to his brother he began to go off the script and start saying what he believed in. He stood for the people with his motto of "that aint right!". He started to gain a following and went from being blown out to becoming the president.

Lincoln

        Passing the 13th amendment was no easy task. President Lincoln had to overcome man obstacles to accomplish what he did. Lincoln was 20 votes short with all his republicans approving it and needed to buy votes before the war was over. He experienced a lot of resistance from his cabinet because they were more focused on ending the war then passing the amendment. But what gave him the hardest time was overcoming the racism by all the politicians. They were afraid that the blacks were going to own property,vote,rank high in the military, and hold office. They didn't want this to happen so they looked against it.
       
        Lincoln used some sketchy ways to buy votes under his implied powers as being the president. He bribed lame duck republicans with jobs. Also he twisted the truth by lying to the house that there were peace talks going on and that there were no delegates from the south in Washington.

       President Lincoln need this amendment to be passed as soon as possible. He needed it to be approved now so it would be in the constitution and not rescinded when another president came intro office.  This would be a catalyst to end the war and Lincoln knew it would give him an advantage in delegations.

Memes

This meme depicts how an individual can deny a crime they obviously committed by remaining silent.

This references the fifth amendment and that you can not be tried for the same crime twice. This is called double jeopardy.

Petoria

     When Peter finds out his property is not part of the US he creates his own nation called Petoria and makes it a dictatorship. There are pros and cons to being a sovereign nation and Peter learns that throughout the episode. Peter gains a lot of freedoms one of which is "diplomatic immunity", since he is now a foreign diplomat in the UN, he can break some laws that ordinary citizens can not. Also Peter is able to do whatever he wants in his "country" because the US is not able to dictate what he can and can't do. For example he takes over Joe's pool and stakes it as a claim to Petoria.
     
      Peter and his family also looses many freedoms all citizens get. Peters kid's are unable to attend the public school which is provided to all kids by the government and is forced to have home school them because they are technically not citizens anymore. Also Peter looses electricity, water and plumbing because he is no longer apart of the USA anymore. Towards the end Peter is no longer able to leave his country because the USA set up a blockade around it so he does not invade. This brings an end to Peter's dictatorship over his authoritarian government.

A World Without Government

     A world without government is like Slim Shady without Dr. Dre. There would be no code of laws that govern the people. Illegal or legal would not be a question. People would be able to do whatever they wanted at any given time. It would be utter chaos and life would be extremely dangerous. Order is a necessity to ensure freedom and peace. Also all the services that the government provides would not exist. The highway department, department of correction, military, emergency services, etc. would not exist. There would be nothing organized to respond to natural disasters or an invading army. Roads and bridges would not be maintained regularly and kept up to code and crimes go unpunished. Government affects every day life in so many ways. People don't realize it as much but government regulates everything we do in life. It keeps order and attempts to bring peace and tranquility to the world.

The Articles Of Confederation

          The Articles of Confederation failed for many reasons. State governments had more power than the federal government to avoid another monarchy. The Articles Of Confederation were quickly put together after the Revolutionary War. There were flaws with it and it had to be fixed.
     One major flaw was that the federal government could not tax citizens. Without taxation the government gets no money and thus cant provide services such as a national guard. There was no way for the government to respond to Shays' rebellion. 
          There was only one house of delegates and amendments made had to be done with a unanimous decision from all the states. Every state had only one vote, regardless of size. Congress did not have the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. There was no uniform system system of currency, some states were different. 
          It was difficult for congress to pass laws, they needed a 9/13 vote. Also it gave no central leadership to enforce these laws. The Articles were purposely written to keep the national government as weak as possible.  The national government was powerless to enforce any acts it did pass. The Articles of Confederation were a big failure.