Discussion boards assignment #5 and #6 

Political polarization and its link to animosity between citizens is one of the most perplexing and troubling aspects of our current political situation.  In the Political Secularization article, you read about some  of the causes and possible fixes that have been proposed by political scientists.  And in the Hidden Brain podcast, you listened to some ideas about how misperceptions about polarization might be driving some to disengage from politics altogether.  

For this discussion board, post a reflection on some aspect of this material – including at least 2 quotes or timestamps from the article OR podcast.  

Then, comment on at least one other post about a similarity or difference in your reflections. 

#6

For this final discussion board, take some time to think about how your interests and values might be represented by interest groups.  

First, recall the distinction between economic and non-economic interests in this chapter and video lecture, and think of ONE economic interest AND  ONE non-economic interest (or value) that are important to you now or in your future after you finish your college coursework.  

Then find 2 interest groups, one that represents each of the above interests, that represent these interests by lobbying government at the federal, state, or local level.   You can find these groups by searching the internet with keywords related to your interests.   

Once you have identified an economic AND a non-economic interest group, see if you can find data about their lobbying and/or election expenditures at opensecrets.org  (which is a database of lobbying activity at the federal level), or at the group’s website.  

Finally, write a short post about what groups you selected and why, what info you found about their expenditures, and finally whether you think your interests, in general, are well-represented by the federal, state, AND local governments.