1.) I
chose the National Education Association (NEA) as my interest group from figure
8.1 in the text. This group’s mission is
to advocate for educational professionals and to unite their members and nation
to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed
in a diverse and interdependent world. This
group strongly believes in that education is the gateway to opportunity and
that all students have the civil and human right to a quality public education
that develops their potential, independence and character. They also believe
that a good education is vital to building respect for worth dignity and
equality in this diverse nation we live in.
2.) The
interest group that I chose that I most positively agreed with is Americans
United for Separation of Church and State (AU), a 501(c )(3) group. This interest groups mission is to be
dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of separation of church
and state as the only way to ensure freedom of religion. I strongly agree with most of their views and
standpoints on this issue. I too believe
that separation of church and state should be followed and is very
important. They strive to break the hold
of religion over our government and to see that our government functions
unbiased and does not respect one religion over another. They do this because they strongly believe in
the freedom of religion in the US and believe that if our government is allowed
to be influenced by one religious doctrine over another that we do not truly
have freedom of religion and definitely do not practice separation of church
and state. I agree with them that separation
of church and state is crucial to maintaining our freedom of religion in this
country.
3.) I
do believe that it is a fine line between influencing our government and
freedom of speech when it comes to interest groups. This line should be monitored by someone to
ensure that it is not crossed and that an interest group does not have hold or too
much influence within our government. I
believe that some interest groups have too much influence while others do not
have enough. I also believe that the
freedom of speech line is crossed when interest groups use their political pull
or financial assets to “buy” votes or persuade a member of legislature to vote
their way.
I commented on:
Rebecca Zuchowski
Nathan Tollett
Megan Biggs
I also think that interest groups cross the line when they try to buy votes or use their power to sway votes. I believe that everyone should have the right to freedom of speech but there's a huge difference between having this freedom and abusing the power that you have.
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