The United States of Aristocracy

Since the ratification of the US Constitution in 1789, one thing has remained clear about American politics: it is run and manned by the wealthy. 4 out of the 5 of the first U.S. Presidents were part of the First Families of Virginia, or FFV's, and were rich plantation owners. The other one was a rich, well-educated man from Massachusetts.

As history progresses, we find that policiticians stay the same: wealthy people that believe they have the answer to the problems in our country. Granted, some of them like Lincoln and FDR did fix America's problems, but most found a mediocre solution, if any solution at all. So why doesn't a common person run for office and break the streak?

The answer is simply that it's too expensive. Getting the word out to over 300 million people is just too expensive for just anyone to do it. Only those with money can afford the cost of TV, radio and paper ads. It's always been expensive. Only those who owned property could vote in early America, and owning property was expensive in the 1780's. It's still expensive now.

The streak of the rich "elite" running American politics will not soon be broken--if it's ever broken at all. The higher campaign costs go and the more we grow, the more elitist we will become. That's what we'll be. The United States of Aristocracy.

Blog Activity Week 1: The Impact of TTTC

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a very changing novel in the way it's written. The stories really make you think, really make you war through different eyes. After reading The Things They Carried, my opinion about the war in Vietnam was changed. I had some previous knowledge of Vietnam before I began reading the novel, but my previous knowledge still acclaimed that the war had justification and purpose. Once I finished the book, I realized something: the war had no justification at all.

Soldiers didn't know why they were there. People back home didn't realize our purpose for so many deaths. We were just there, bombing villages, shooting bystanders and burning homes. Even the Vietnamese didn't know why we were there. They thought we were there for money; this is present in the documentary Two Days in October.

As I was watching this film, my thoughts began to change about the war in Vietnam and what I had learned in history class about it. After watching the film and reading Tim O'Brien's novel, my opinion had totally changed. I am a fairly patriotic person, but after watching these media on the ten-year tragedy that was the Vietnam "war", I feel that I would have stood up and done what was right and justified.