American Politics

For this installment, I decided that I wanted to learn about Something New; given the proximity of the American presidential elections, "American Politics 101" seemed a good subject to tackle. And so for one night only, my friend, Ben, became "Professor Shepherd" and his living room the "Arlen Spector Memorial Lecture Theatre".

In attempting some pre-reading, I rediscovered Wikipedia, pretty maps - and the fact that I will always be distracted by cats on YouTube.

To begin with, we started with a brief introduction to the make-up of the American political system. We covered all the basics, such as phrases from the news and books like "congressman", "senator" and "Governator". The bit I found particularly interesting was seeing all the differences between the executive, legislative and judiciary levels of government - including who really has power over whom.

Then we moved on to focusing on the upcoming election. Up until now the only things I had remarked upon were Joe Biden's shiny blue eyes. We worked through Obamacare vs Romneycare, purple states, the electoral college and the Democrat/Republican balance. I wouldn't say that we covered the candidates in an unbiased way, given the Prof's strong affection for BHO, but we did consider the consequences of a "Mitt-ctory".

And how would I rate Professor Shepherd? Well, the PowerPoint was clear and concise, even if the pictures were a little distorted. His explanations were interesting and generally clear, once he stopped using the British political system as a reference (another subject on which I am similarly ignorant) and my simplistic questions were neither scorned nor left unanswered. Plus, he provided crisps and wine, which is a step up from most of my university lecturers!

This is for you if...

If you're after a comprehensive view of American politics, rather than a state-by-state analysis. While this learning will ostensibly help me with my understanding of literary characters, I am also now more interested in the outcome of the election.

Recommendations

After university, it is very easy to stop learning in this kind of way. Having "expert" friends rather than official lecturers cover an interesting topic was really good fun and I would definitely recommend trying it out, if there's something you want to know about!