American History Homework Nine Answers - Student 25

Addison DM (d0ne)

1. I agree that the election of Senator Obama is similar to that of Andrew Jackson. In fact, I had thought of that on my own too. It seems that they both had a real, inspiring vision, not just a bullet list of policies. Of course we’ll see if Sen. Obama delivers. Also, I think that the change of power from a moderate conservative like Bush to a possibly radical liberal like Obama is similar to the “Revolution of 1800,” where two clearly conflicting ideologies faced off as well.

Excellent! Note, however, that many complained that McCain wasn't really much different from Obama (e.g., "global warming"), and McCain has already pledged to help Obama on the issue of immigration.

2. Like almost everything, there are good and bad elements to imperialism. It’s good in that we might have modernized and brought our faith to relatively undeveloped countries, but it’s bad in that it was driven often by selfishness and also started wars with questionable motives.

Superb.

3. I think the progressive movement is a good compromise between left-wing and right-wing, because the progressive movement is based on what really works for the people and not on blind ideology.

Good, but see model answers.

4. President McKinley, “with the eyes of the world upon him” (literally) is holding a Philippine native and contemplating whether to throw him off the cliff- to “Spain-” or not. It may symbolize that America is contemplating doing the same thing it did to the Spain to the natives- that is, throwing them off the cliff, or out of the Philippines, and perhaps taking it over.

Excellent, though I don't see the "out of the Philippines" part.

Honors

1. No. It was our fault we stayed in the Philippines after we defeated the Spanish. We could have left after that and been done. Instead we stayed and got ourselves tangled up in an insurgent war, and then destroyed the natives, when their insurgency was really our fault. Note, I would not compare this situation to the Iraq insurgency, because Iraq might very well have posed a national security threat, whereas Spain did not. The war with Spain was just “for kicks,” with no serious reason to fight.

Good analysis, but I think there was an Islamic insurgency in the Philippines against Christianity. I'd like to read more about that.

2. Yellow journalism was probably worse than the election coverage. The New York Times has occasionally printed false or exaggerated headlines or stories which they had to retract (I’m losing count of how many stories they’ve pulled!), but I don’t think this is as bad, or as common as similar practices during Yellow journalism. That said, there are some similarities, the greatest being that the media obviously had an agenda. There was a bad double standard in the election coverage, and the media completely ignored many questionable associations, gaffes, and backtracks by Obama as if they never happened, whereas they pounced on any little thing John McCain or Sarah Palin said.

Right. Will use as a model.

3. I want to defend Obama choosing the Washington insider Rahm Emmanuel for a cabinet member. I don’t think that necessarily means that his claim of changing Washington is over. How can you change a problem if you don’t know about it? My phrase for this problem is “How can you preach from the rooftops if you don’t enter the city?” Obama’s entered the city with Rahm Emmanuel. We have yet to see if he will preach from the rooftops. Perhaps.

OK, let's see what he does next!

Superb answers. Perfect! Score: 60/60.--Aschlafly 22:10, 15 November 2008 (EST)