Discussion Board Question(s) are given to show how well you can interpret what you have read and apply it to today. These responses are more subjective, asking the student to form an opinion on certain topics. The student should exhibit some mastery of the material and the ability to think beyond the text. Ex: What did this event, movement, idea, mean at the time? What motivated it? What effects does it still have today? Did this have an overall negative or positive effect on our culture? Be thorough in answering these questions, as they constitute 25% of your final grade. Discussion Board Responses should be thoughtful reflections on the readings. As such, these questions are more open to debate and interpretation than the Reading Guide Questions. Your responses should reflect some critical and analytical thinking on your part. Responses should be at least 300 words minimum. This work should be posted in Blackboard and is due by Thursday evening, 11:45 PM. Lateness affects the other students’ ability to make their Peer Responses so please be considerate.
The chapter on the Conservatism Revival was interesting and enlightening. I could not help but think how actual and alive those issues and arguments are today, nearly 50 years later. Articulating the conservative response to 1960s liberalism, our authors have also shown us how so many of these same differences separate left and right/liberal and conservative in the present. The argument over big government control versus personal liberties, the emphasis on rights versus responsibilities, government handouts versus helping yourself, dialoguing with communism/terrorism versus confronting and defeating communism/terrorism, belief in the perfectibility of mankind through government programs versus a return to religion and traditional morality, etc.
In this Discussion Board, explain your political point of view. Are you more liberal or conservative? Were you/would you have been so in the 60s? Has your political point of view changed over the years? What is your stance on the issues listed above? What of related issues today that still divide liberals and conservatives? Think this through and give us your basic political credo. Defend your positions and be ready to critique the other side in your Peer Response.