Who is our Congress?

Our government is divided into three different parts or branches. These three branches are the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial.

The Legislative branch is our bicameral or two part Congress. The two parts are known as the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both parts play an important role in making laws, but there are some differences between the two.

To run for the House you have to be 25 years old and have been a citizen for 7 years. If you get elected your term only lasts for two years.

To run for Senator you have to be 30 years old and must have been a citizen for 9 years. If elected your term only lasts for six years.

Besides different ages and different term limits there is a difference between the amount of people in each part of Congress. The amount of representatives per state depends on the population. Right now there is one representative per five thousand citizens. The Senate is made up of two senators from each state making 100 senators. Another difference is that the House is the only place that a law about taxes and the impeachment of someone can start. The Senate has to try any impeachments.

Both the House and the Senate have a main leader who helps the group. For the Senate it is the Vice President of the United States who is the President of the Senate. As the President of the Senate they can only vote if there is a tie.

For the House it is the Speaker, who gets voted in by the representatives. The Speaker of the House is the highest ranking Representative and is just below the vice president in command of the country.

The Senators for the state of Colorado as of now are Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar. The republican Senator for Colorado is Wayne Allard. The democrat Senator for Colorado is Ken Salazar, The House Representatives for Colorado as of now are John Salazar, Ed Pearlmutter, Diana DeGette, Mark Udall, Thomas Tencredo, Marilyn Musgrave, and Doug Lamborn. Colorado has three republicans in the House who are Thomas Tencredo, Marylin Musgrave and Doug Lamborn. Colorado’s four democratic representatives are Mark Udall, Diana DeGette, John Salazar and Ed Purlmutter. The candidates that are running for Senators in Colorado are Mark Udall, Bob Schaffer, Bob Kinsey, and Douglas “Dayhorse” Campbell.

I think that the power of splitting the Legislative branch is helping to keep the power spread evenly, because they would have so much power if they were all one group. So I have to wonder why does this one branch have so much power? Is this a good thing? What if they combined into one group? I think that this branch has the most power because it has more people in it than the other two branches. I think that if they combined into one group that would destroy our system of government’s checks and balances on each other. This would not be a good thing to happen, but it has a very small chance of happening because five hundred and forty three minds would have to agree on everything and both groups would have to give up some of their power. Another wonder I have is, Are the Senate and House equal? I think that the Senate has more power because unlike the House they are never completely new. In the constitution it states that one-third of the senators are elected every two years. I think this makes the Senate have more advantage, because two-thirds of the senators will have already have had experience in this position.

The 6 principles of Government

Here is a list of what is supposed to be the six principles of government.

• Popular Sovereignty
• Limited Government
• Separation of powers
• Checks and Balances
• Federalism

After looking at this list and coming to an understanding of it, I have to question, is our government following these principles? In order to answer this question who have to know what each principle means. The popular sovereignty means that the government can't change anything with out the popular vote of the governed. Limited government means that the government can't make any laws that effect the basic human rights. If they do this then it means that the people have the right to abolish the government. Separation of powers means that you don't have power spread out equally and that they check and balance each other. The judicial review is basically our supreme court. To have Federalism is to have laws and one leader that runs things and makes sure things follow out. So to answer my own question, I do think that our government follows these principles fairly well.

What is democracy?

Here is a list of what some people think Democracy is:

• It's not perfect, but better than other forms.
• Speak our (the people) ideas and work together.
• Based on trust between government and people.
• Liberty and Equality.
• Changes with the people and by the people - any way we want.
• 2 main political parties.
• People need to be active citizens not spectators, not subjects.
• There are individual beliefs.
• The government and people are one of the same.
• Freedom is encouraged but has some limits.
• Has diversity.
• There are constitutional limits on the government.
• Guarantee basic human rights.
• Equality before the law.
• Free and Fair elections.
• Takes cooperation and compromise from both sides.
• Keep some aspect of life out of politics.
• Education is important.
• It's like domino's, when one part falls it all comes crashing down.

In order to start my writing my thoughts I am going to share a quote, "Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people." - Henry ClaySo if democracy is based on trust, I have to wonder is our government now following this? Are we getting all of the truth? There has been a lot that has been kept from us. As citizens we should have the right to know the whole truth, no matter how controversial it might be. We should know the truth about each candidate and not just get to know half of the story.