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Willie Nelson's Role In American Politics

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The last month has been, to put it mildly, eventful in American politics. With the at-times hostile protests from leftists at the University of Missouri to GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s numerous controversial comments, November was marred by outrage from both sides of the spectrum with little room for nonpartisanship. But looking past these individuals, there was a lone bright spot, and it came from someone not known for his politics, but rather his music. On November 19, CNN released an interesting interview with country music legend Willie Nelson. As the segment began, the more-liberal Nelson was asked if he would consider smoking marijuana with the previously mentioned Trump. Nelson, a well-known advocate for legalization, …show more content…

As both major political parties have shifted farther from the center, there has also been an increase of mutual apathy from its members. Individuals on both side believe it is more important to live in a place where viewpoints are shared rather than differ. Instead of hearing the other side, we have resorted to protecting one’s owns views, producing little positive results. UNC is an epitome of this culture. This semester, we have seen conservatives sensationalize a first-year seminar regarding September 11, a pro-abortion group erase chalk messages from their opposition and students interrupt a town hall event to demand actions ranging from understandable to unfathomable. None of these incidents created change or even a dialogue, nor made people want to work together towards any possible solution. We belittled conversation, replacing it with hostility and narcissism. We should follow Nelson’s lead and be open to engaging with those we disagree with. It does not have to be large scale, but it could be something as simple as a conversation over lunch, or in Nelson’s case a

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Universities and junior colleges are places where we learn different things and ideas from the different spheres and influences from our professors and instructors. These are also a place where we should value different opinions from both sides, in order to form a position in where you stand in your beliefs as a person, a balance opinion should be our utmost priority in order to have a constructive dialogue between both sides of the political spectrum. However, not validating and listening to the opinion of others can create a divisive rhetoric, where we end up ridiculing and criticising one another because of his/her political views. In the essay from Christina Hoff Sommers, “For More Balance on Campuses,” she criticises the liberalisation

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this book helps readers see the opportunities that are shown together. even though liberalism faded away due to conservatives it did exist and played a huge role in shaping the diverse population and

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Usually this is done by discrediting the individuals who discuss and want to push significant structural change. Once this class loses its social and political part in politics, then democracy would break down and the liberal class then turns into an object of mocking and contempt. This particular book examines the failures of the liberal class, and Hedge does that by arguing that there are five pillars of the liberal establishment. They are the press, liberal religious institutions, labor unions, universities, and the Democratic Party. Each of these categories are more preoccupied with their own status and benefit rather than the equity or even the advancement of the liberal agenda, and as a result these pillars are sell outs toward the constituents that they are

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As a liberal Catholic politician, Ted Kennedy is about as far from the Baptist conservative students on the political spectrum as can be. Yet, instead of shying away from this disparity in their beliefs, Kennedy confronts it head on in his introduction by saying that he knows they “begin with certain disagreements” and that he “strongly suspects that at the end of the evening some of [their] disagreements will remain” (Kennedy). He then transitions into his argument by saying, “but I also hope that tonight and in the months and years ahead, we will always respect the right of others to differ, that we will never lose sight of our own fallibility” (Kennedy). By introducing himself as one who holds different beliefs than his audience, and then encouraging them to respect the views of others, he frames his argument around tolerance in politics, and supports that argument by using himself as living and breathing evidence. Kennedy, by coming to a place where many would consider him unwelcome and establishing that from the beginning, becomes a credible source of insight and wisdom about tolerating others and supports his claim that differences must be set aside in political discourse for it to be

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By restraining the influence of the government on daily life, the United States will be able to return to the great nation of freedom; a nation in which its founding fathers so vehemently fought to build. Similarly, politics should not be controlled strictly according to political parties, and Coolidge urged people to support the values they believe in, not a certain political party. In today’s world, I think many politicians would benefit from acting in the way of doing the right thing, rather than supporting sides merely based on political affiliation. For this reason, I am passionate about educating myself as much as possible to candidates beliefs, and I look forward to being able to take part in my first elections in coming

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Controversial issues such as this one really shows the insight my fellow peers have and the ideology they

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Immigration reform is one of the most contentious issues in America today, provoking angry debates in Congress, fueling tension in town hall meetings across the country, and even dividing families. In 2007, as the battle over immigration reform played out in Congress, Tom Selders, the Republican mayor of Greeley, Colorado, put a local face on the issue. Selders spoke out on Capitol Hill about the devastating effect of an immigration raid at a Greeley meatpacking plant and urged Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform. As a result, he faced a backlash of criticism at home. Selders knew his public stance on immigration was politically risky, particularly since he was seeking reelection in the upcoming mayoral race.

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Gilded Age in America sprung from the remains of American Civil War fought for freedom. Civil War broke out in 1861 with the election of Abraham Lincoln as the President. Out of many reasons that paved way for the Civil War, the most prominent and most important one was the freedom movements for slaves. These freedom movements started with the conflict between South and North. South developed as an agrarian community and was economically dependent on it.

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As pessimistic expressions of the party are stifled, individuality diminishes, and the capacity for meaningful communication withers. The power of language

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An example of this, is a recent conversation I had with one of my high school history teachers. He was critical of me for taking a cultural diversity class at a local college for dual-enrollment. My teacher did not see the value of the course, and he directly said the course was, “horse-crap”, and “propaganda being promoted by those African countries”. Not only do I disagree with his perspective, I am eager to embrace the openness of the Kilachand Honors College. Kilachand Honors College will fulfill my academic goals by giving me access to scholars with an increase breadth of knowledge.

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But some emphasize the intellectual. The people who designed our liberal democratic system made fundamental errors, which are now coming home to roost. Notre Dame political scientist Patrick Deneen falls into this camp. His new book, “Why Liberalism Failed,” is a challenge to those of us who want to revive

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Finally, it will be argued that the modern political party system in the United States is a two-party system dominated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These two parties have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and have controlled the United States Congress since 1856. The Democratic Party generally positions itself as centre-left in American politics and supports a modern American liberal platform, while the Republican Party generally positions itself as centre-right and supports a modern American conservative platform. (Nichols, 1967)

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Daniel Felsenfeld began his self-proclaimed “uninspiring” musical journey in High School. During this time he labored over musical pieces that left him feeling unfulfilled. His conflict of disinterest in Chopin Preludes and Beethoven’s Sonata led Felsenfeld to move on from professional music lessons to performing at piano bars. We have all felt a switch in our mood from an old song that provokes sad memories to an upbeat lyric that makes us want to dance. Music is known for bringing out the person you are truly deeply inside like the young man in Benjamin Zander’s Speech.

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According to President Michael Roth of Wesleyan University, “those who think they favor free speech but call for civility in all discussions should remember that battles for freedom of expression are

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For instance, David Horowitz proposed the Academic Bill of Rights which is called to “restore academic values” by “removing partisan politics from the classroom.” ( Source D). In fact, when teacher express their political views, and opinions in the classroom it creates educational biases in the classroom and therefore reduces the learning. The main purpose of professors no matter their political views is to teach students how to think, and not what to think by providing them with different viewpoints on a controversial matter. In addition, Source F emphasizes that “professors have a duty to inject some degree of controversy into the classroom” to “stimulate a healthy intellectual debate” (Source F).

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