United States of America ( Country )

Earth - North America - United States of America

People

Mike Duncan (R) - RNC Chairman
Matt Gonzalez (I)

Government & Groups of Influence

Democratic
The oldest political party in the United States, the Democrats have 72 million members, 42.6% of the electorate. Today, the Democrats advocate a smart government that champions socially progressive and centrist economic policies.
American Civil Liberties Union
Founded in 1920, the liberal-minded ACLU has sought "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It is currently a lobbying giant in Washington.
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is the organization managing the Republican Party on a day-to-day basis.
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the organization managing the Democratic Party on a day-to-day basis.
National Republican Senatorial Committee
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is the official campaign arm of the Republicans in the Senate.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is the official campaign arm of the Democrats in the Senate.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is the official campaign arm of the Democrats in the House.
National Republican Congressional Committee
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is the official campaign arm of the Republicans in the House.

Issues

Net Neutrality
Network neutrality generally refers to the regulation of broadband network operators to require that they provide equal access to the network for all content and service providers.
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action refers to policies intended to promote access to education or employment aimed at a historically socio-politically non-dominant group, typically minorities and women.
Universal Health Care
Universal health care guarantees coverage for all citizens and is mandated, funded or facilitated by the government. Every affluent country in the world enjoys universal health coverage except the U.S. which spends twice as much per capita on health care.
School Vouchers
School vouchers are a controversial proposal that introduce market competition into education by redirecting the flow of funding from school districts to individual families. This allows families send their kids to the schools of their choice.
Digital Rights
Widespread distribution of digital content over the internet has rendered traditional copyright law obsolete. Digital rights criminalize the production and dissemination of copyrighted material and increases the penalties for these crimes.
Legalized Abortion
Legalized Abortion involves the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that made abortions permissible under any circumstance until the point at which the fetus becomes viable. That is, potentially able to live outside the uterus.
Bush Tax Cuts
From 2001-2004, Congress approved legislation introduced by President Bush that would significantly reduce taxes in order to stimulate the economy. Pres. Bush has received criticism for pursuing a policy that largely benefits America's wealthiest citizens.
Privatization of Social Security
Full or partial privatization of social security would divert revenue to private accounts. S.S. would instead be owned and managed by workers who would pay less payroll taxes.
Iraq War Withdrawal
Democrats and Republicans in congress are considering various withdrawal and exit proposals as America's support for the war plummets.
Citizenship for illegal immigrants
President Bush pushed for a bipartisan bill that would reform the immigration system but could not garner enough support from Congressional Republicans for the bill to pass.
Assault Weapons Ban
The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) provision was signed into law in 1994. The 10 year ban, expiring in 2004, is currently undergoing an inspection of effectiveness and a reinstitution bill in the House of Representatives.
Corporate Governance
Corporations are largely unregulated in the United States and became even less regulated during the 1990s. The deregulation movement and the American shareholder model led to a devastating series of corporate scandals.
Outsourcing
Business wants to preserve the ability to exporting jobs abroad in order to stay competitive. Labor interests wish to limit the extent to which businesses can layoff American workers for cheaper sources of labor in developing countries.
Capital Punishment
Studies have shown that capital punishment is applied arbitrarily and problems with administering lethal injections has left the state courts and legislatures to grapple with the law or cease executions altogether.
Legalization of Drugs
The anti-drug effort in the U.S. has criminalized a large part of society and at significant costs, with little regard for the impact drugs have on human health. Legalization would give the government the ability to tax and regulate.
Legalization of Medical Marijuana
Marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning the U.S. government considers it to have "no accepted medical use." However, there is an overwhelming consensus of its effectiveness as a treatment for certain conditions in the medical community.
Slavery Reparations
A movement in the US which seeks the apology of the government and reparations in the form of money, land, or other goods to slave descendants, for its role in the institution of slavery prior to 1865.
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has sought to elevate the performance of American schools and student with federal oversight and strict penalties for poor performance and as such has been both attacked and backed by various groups.
Dialogue with Rogue World Leaders
With the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba increasingly vocal about their opposition to the U.S., talk of a potential dialogue with such leaders is becoming a central political issue with international implications.
Death Penalty for Child Offenders
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty for those who were under 18 at the time of their crime is cruel and unusual. Children lack the developmental capability to make rational decisions, ergo they are considered less culpable criminals.
Agricultural Subsidies
Over $55 billion per year are expended on agricultural subsidies under the Farm Bill in the United States. These subsidies keep American farmers in business since their costs would otherwise be too high if forced to compete in undistorted markets.
Constitutional Ban on Flag Desecration
While the First Amendment of the US Constitution protects flag desecration as a freedom of speech, several attempts by Congress to make amend the Constitution, while unsuccessful, have expanded the debate to a matter of national opinion and freedom.
Energy Independence
A popular campaign that promises to reduce oil imports for security purposes and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Legislation in 2005 and 2007 have attempted, although poorly, to address American dependency.
Kyoto Protocol Ratification
An amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which seeks to assign mandatory emission limitations for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the signatory nations.
Minimum Wage
Congress raised the federal minimum wage three times in 2007, arguing that current wages are not keeping up with the rising cost of living. 2007 legislation will put the federal minimum wage at $7.25/hour in July 2009.
Border Fence
The border fence spans two issues: immigration and homeland security. First passed in 2006, the fence has been included in immigration legislation to control illegal immigration flow across the southern border.
Military Draft
The military draft, which makes military service mandatory, has been used several times in U.S. history before it was ended in 1973. Declining troop levels as a result of the Iraq war have made the draft a renewed possibility.
Warrantless Wiretapping
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President Bush, in a highly contested move, executively ordered the NSA to wiretap communications between U.S. citizens and suspected terrorists
Mandatory Pledge of Allegiance
In response to the surge of patriotism following Sept 11, local lawmakers across the U.S. introduced legislating that would make it mandatory for public schools to start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Two Party System
The United States is a two party system elected through plurality vote.
Gays in the Military
Previously, homosexuals were banned from joining the armed forces. Under current law, non-heterosexual behavior cannot be discussed or investigated and is subject to discharge.
Prison Reform
The United States currently leads the world in incarceration. It holds 2.1 million people in prisons or jails, thereby sparking public and legislative debates over crime rates, mandatory sentencing, and the growing prison industry.
Public Display of 10 Commandments
High Courts in the U.S. are divided over whether displaying religious symbols violates the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment. This debate has become a hot issue in American politics used to appeal to religious conservatives.
Intelligent Design
Intelligent design refers to a modern argument that God informed the development of some features of the universe and living things, which counters the indirect natural selection process as described by Charles Darwin's theories on evolution.
Financial Aid for Students
In 2007, the Democratic Senate voted to increase college financial aid by cutting $20 billion in subsidies to banks and giving it to the poorest college students.
Economic Sanctions on Iran
With Iran's 2003 fruition of their purportedly legitimate nuclear ambition came an international cry for economic sanctions and dialogue with the deviant President Ahmadinejad.
Manned Mission to Mars
Since the end of the Apollo program, which successfully placed a man on the moon, there have been rumors of a manned mission to the Red Planet.
Fuel Efficiency Regulation
The large automotive industry has prevented any effective change from occurring in fuel efficiency standards since 1975 until the Senate passed a bill in June of 2007 that would require a 10 mpg increase in efficiency by car manufacturers.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) is an international treaty opened for signature in 1968 and currently signed by 189 nations to stop the production of nuclear weapons, disarm current weapons and peacefully use nuclear technology.
Flat Tax
A flat tax is a tax on income or consumption at a set rate. It differs from from income or consumption taxes that use sliding scale "brackets" that are determined by income earned.
Electoral College Reform
The 2000 Presidential election, in which the majority vote was overridden by the electoral vote, sparked an electoral college reform movement across the country. New state laws will pledge the state electoral votes the winner of the popular vote.
Welfare Programs
Pres. Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it" and signed a law that decreased by half the number of people on state assistance. Ten years on, the poverty rate is as high as ever.
Darfur Intervention
The United States was the first country to call the situation in the western province of Sudan a genocide. Since then, Congress and the Bush administration have imposed sanctions on the Sudanese government for its part in prolonging the conflict.
Animal Welfare
Animal Welfare in the US is regulated by 3 federal laws and state statues. Currently, pets and wildlife are protected from acts of cruelty. Livestock and lab animals are granted limited protections and there is no legislation for purpose-bred birds.
Required DNA Testing
Flaws in the criminal justice system have led to numerous wrongful convictions, many of which have been sentenced to death. DNA evidence can verify a person's innocence or guilt but is not always used.
Expanding the Prosecutable List of Hate Crimes
Existing federal hate crime laws protect people from certain crimes motivated by hatred against a certain race, color, religion or national origin. Current legislation seeks to expand this list to include gender, sexual orientation, and disability.
Public Preschool
Georgia and New York have implemented universal preschool programs for four-year-olds, and other states are considering the same. Low-income families would benefit from saving on fees for child care and preschool programs.
Social Security Reform
All affluent countries are faced with aging populations and the retirement of the large postwar generation which will soon overwhelm public pension systems. President Bush made pension reform an issue in his 2004 reelection campaign.
Partitioning of Iraq
There is increasing support for partitioning post-war Iraq along ethno-religious lines. This would in effect create a Kurdistan, Sunnistan and Shiastan under the umbrella of a de-centralized "Iraq" government and would, many hope, quell civil war.
Line-Item Veto
The line-item veto gives power of an executive to nullify specific provisions of a bill without vetoing the entire bill. Congress granted the president this power in order to control "pork barrel spending."
Marriage Tax
A provision in American tax code that levies higher taxes on couples with equal incomes than singles or couples with disparate incomes. Over half of couples actually benefit from this provision. The penalty was eliminated as a part of the 2001 tax cuts.
Business Regulation
Compared to other countries, the United States has fewer regulations on businesses but the markets in which businesses operate are not completely unrestricted, contrary to popular belief.
Iraq Troop Surge
The Iraq Troop Surge was announced by President George W. Bush on January 10, 2007 as a new strategy for securing regions of Iraq by increasing the number of American troops.
Stem Cell Research
Stem Cell research is a type of health care research involving a specialized regenerative cells. The research is specifically controversial because of the destruction of human embryos or therapeutic cloning in the research process.
Antitrust Regulation
Antitrust regulation is used to preserve competition in markets. Whereas American law emphasizes strict competition, European and Japanese law emphasize competition with inter-firm collaboration.
Public Campaign Financing
Public financing gives a limited amount of public funding to qualified candidates who are running for an elected position, rather than having to raise private campaign funds.
Patriot Act
The USA Patriot Act, which extends the power of law enforcement agencies in pursuing suspected terrorists, has caused outrage for perceived violations of civil liberties.
Lobbyist Gifts to Congress
Gifts from lobbyists to Congress take many forms, from campaign money and parties to trips and fancy dinners. All, however, pose a serious threat to our Republic, as special interest is paid not to the represented citizen, but rather, the highest bidder.
Militarization of Space
The Cold War triggered a race between U.S. and the USSR to militarize space and develop new space weaponry technologies. Since the end of the war, space weapons have been used in various ways to support military ground operations.
Lunar Base Construction
In 2006, NASA announced plans to build a lunar outpost so it can conduct research, make preparations for a journey to Mars, and encourage international participation.
Wellness standards in schools
The sharp rise in obesity and diabetes in children has led to an initiative that forces school districts to set "wellness standards" in nutrition, physical activity, and nutrition education by the 06-07 school year.
Unification of Korea
Korea was divided by Cold War politics in 1948 in spite of a shared identity that dates back 5,000 years. The restoration of Korea seems inevitable, with both sides stating reunification as an eventual goal, but political issues have impeded the process.
Bank Regulation
Regulation that prevents major financial crises by regulating how much capital banks store according to the riskiness of their investments. It also served a number of other functions from ensuring privacy to revealing information on suspected terrorists.
Free Trade
Republicans more often promote free trade to satisfy business interests. Democrats have changed their position on trade. In the 1990s they were supportive of trade agreements but today their position appeals to people who are concerned about losing their j
Emissions Trading
Emissions trading (or cap and trade), puts a limit on the amount firms can pollute and issue an equivalent number of credits. Firms that pollute beyond their allowance buy credits from those that pollute less.

Concepts

The Constitution
The US Constitution is the basis for the working of the United States government, and is the root of all laws that govern the country.
Conceptual Acuity
Our basic relationship with government is an involuntary association, and in this sense we are justified in saying that government is an involuntary association. Edit.

Objects & Things

The Constitution
The US Constitution is the basis for the working of the United States government, and is the root of all laws that govern the country.