Chapter 3 Blog assignment

I personally believe having a strong national government is necessary to ensure order and fairness for our country. If we left the majority of the power up to the states, I believe we would encounter rebellions and possibly civil wars. If states believe they can create order of their own accord, it would be an ultimate failure. With such a division of political idealism these days, every state would be different. States like California would support gay marriage, abortion, and a more liberal view point on things. Other states could be completely against even the thought of these. I think the issues of gay marriage, abortion, racism, gun control, and more highly controversial topics would divide the nation multiple ways. If we allowed each state to have their own ruling, what’s to stop the fighting, the amount of court cases, and the danger it would have on the young in the nation. While the national government may not always make the best decisions or the decisions our citizens hope for, I believe they do a better job than state governments would.

 The shift towards national power during the Great Depression can be greatly linked to the need for aid in the failing economy. The states found themselves depending on the national government to assist in their survival and recovery. Reagan was dedicated to reducing the power national government had over the United States and to laying the fault on the government completely. I don’t think his attempts were positive for the United States and that he should have used his strategies to fix the economy.

I also believe the issue of education should be left up to the national government as well. Although there is a major flaw taking religion out of schools completely, there are also different types of schools children can attend (Catholic, Christian, etc). If our state and local governments were allowed the decision to control the education standards and systems, the young in the nation would suffer greatly from this. When I lived in Florala, Alabama my parents took us out of the school system and put us in home school. The reason was, this school (area) was among the lowest in the nation on educational standards. They only careers they encouraged their children to have were agriculture based careers or to be a housewife. 4-H, while beneficial to children, was pushed so heavily that any student attempting to broaden their horizons with aspirations to become a major profession is greatly discouraged and stopped. If we allow this control to be left up to the state and local standards, there will be states that allow the bare minimum to succeed (being able to work on engines and cook really well, but being unable to read or write at even a basic level) to those who have finished college level work by 6^th grade.