by Konnor Gottfred | Mar 9, 2019 | News Slider, Opinion
DISCLAIMER: This article is the opinion of the author and is not intended to reflect the opinions of Lumination Network. Moderation is disappearing in the American political landscape. Over the past twenty years, there has been a continual shift or reoccurring trend in the politics of the everyday citizen where viewpoints across the partisan spectrum have started to become less and less varied. In turn, many citizens are slowly pulling away from the opposing side and becoming more self-contained within their preferred party. The middle ground we used to find between the parties is being swallowed up by a more radical wave stemming from both sides of the issue. This trend, often referred to as political polarization, paints a potentially bleak future of American politics as both parties continue to become more and more enveloped in their own views. The rise of polarization has had an inverse effect on compromise as these like-minded bubbles often breed little criticism, which opens the way for more extreme views to be adopted. The ideas put out by politicians keep getting more and more radical because we as a society allow them to. In many instances, polarization is furthered by the everyday people you associate with. A majority of people say that their friends and family share similar if not identical viewpoints to theirs. The Overton Window is a political theory that defines the boundaries for what stances a politician can take and still be elected. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy states that “The [Overton] window shifts to include different policy options not when ideas change among politicians, but when ideas change in...
by Konnor Gottfred | Feb 24, 2019 | News Slider, Opinion
This week, I sat down with Dr. Marc Schwerdt, a professor of political science here at Lipscomb to discuss and go over the potential successes and shortcomings of The Green New Deal. Before we get into the some of the points made within the interview, I would like to go over just what exactly the Green New Deal is and what it entails. The Green New Deal is a sweeping and newly-proposed resolution that is being championed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey. While it was mentioned all the way back in November after AOC won her congressional race in New York, the actual document containing the details and provisions behind a new ten-year plan was first introduced to Congress on Feb. 7 of this year. The Green New Deal declares that “because the United States has historically been responsible for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions, having emitted 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions through 2014, and has a high technological capacity, the United States must take a leading role in reducing emissions through economic transformation.” Therefore, there are many domestically-centered projects and objectives outlined within the resolution that revolve around a global concern for our environment. AOC looks for America to move to a system of 100 percent clean, renewable energy by around 2030, and the deal also looks for the world to be able to have net-zero emissions by 2050. Not only would we be moving away from greenhouse gases and fossil fuels, but this also includes the decommissioning of all nuclear plants. According to the document, if we do nothing to reverse...
by Konnor Gottfred | Feb 10, 2019 | News Slider, Opinion
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a paradigm for the effective and positive use of the First Amendment. While he may be gone, his legacy has endured and, in his time, Dr. King made great strides in bringing awareness to and speaking out against the racial injustice that plagued 20th century America. Growing up and continuing to live in highly segregated areas of the South, Dr. King was certainly no stranger to discrimination. At that time, the idea of separate but equal was largely ingrained and accepted within American culture until the overturning of the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson case and by the landmark decision made in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. After that, attitudes throughout the nation began to shift, but the roots that had been implanted within society would be slow to recede, leading to conflicts and protests in the years to come. In fact, about a year later, Dr. King found himself in the middle of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He acted as the protest’s primary spokesperson, and by utilizing his rhetorical ability earned through his years of getting a doctorate in divinity, he declared a vocal and public opposition to the continuing problem of segregation. After Montgomery, Dr. King went for the heart of racial tensions in America: Birmingham, Alabama. In Birmingham, it was his act of civil disobedience towards an ordinance issued to delay protesters from gathering that led to his arrest. This arrest, however, would spark his classic penning of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In it, he criticized passivity and the notion that the solution to segregation was time...
