Unit 1
Founding documents
- The Declaration of Independence (1776) states that rights come before government and that government exists by consent of the governed.
- The Constitution (ratified 1788) creates three branches with separated powers and checks on one another.
- The Bill of Rights (1791) is the first ten amendments, limiting federal power over speech, religion, arms, searches, and criminal process.
- Federalism divides power between the national government and the states; the 10th Amendment reserves the remainder to states and the people.
Which clause of the Constitution most limits the power you care about most, and why?
Unit 2
How a bill becomes law
- A bill is introduced in the House or Senate and referred to committee, where most bills die.
- Committee markup, floor debate, and a majority vote are required in each chamber; Senate debate usually needs 60 votes to end a filibuster.
- Differences between chambers are resolved in conference or by amendment exchange.
- The president signs or vetoes; Congress can override a veto with two-thirds of both chambers.
Trace one bill currently in Congress from introduction to its present stage.
Unit 3
Republican Party history
- Founded in 1854 in opposition to the expansion of slavery.
- Lincoln's election in 1860 made it the governing party through the Civil War and Reconstruction.
- Republican Congresses wrote the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
- Goldwater in 1964 and Reagan in 1980 defined the modern conservative platform of limited government, free enterprise, and strong defense.
Which era of the party's history do you think is least understood today?
Unit 4
Economics and opportunity
- Supply and demand set prices; price controls create shortages or surpluses.
- Inflation is a sustained rise in the general price level; it erodes savings and wages.
- Marginal tax rates affect the incentive to earn the next dollar, which is why they differ from average rates.
- Compound interest rewards early saving: money invested at 8% roughly doubles every nine years.
Calculate what $200 a month invested from age 18 to 65 could become at a 7% average return.
Unit 5
Voting and civic participation
- Voter registration deadlines, ID requirements, and absentee rules are set by each state.
- In Georgia, you may register at 17 and a half and vote at 18; check your county registrar for precinct and early-voting locations.
- Local offices — school board, county commission, sheriff, state legislature — shape daily life more directly than federal races.
- Primaries usually decide the outcome in noncompetitive districts, yet turnout there is far lower.
Name your U.S. representative, both senators, your state legislators, and your county commissioner.
Unit 6
Arguing well
- State the other side's strongest version before answering it.
- Separate a factual claim from a value claim; they require different kinds of evidence.
- Cite primary sources — the bill text, the roll-call vote, the court opinion — over commentary about them.
- Concede what is true. Credibility is the only persuasion tool that compounds.
Write the strongest one-paragraph case against a position you hold.
