Keeping the Republic. Christine Barbour

      1 As they say in Chicago about voting, do it early and often. If you open the book for the first time the night before the exam, you will not learn much from it and it won’t help your grade. Start reading the chapters in conjunction with the lectures, and you’ll get so much more out of class.

      2 Pay attention to the chapter headings and In Your Own Words goals. They tell you what we think is important, what our basic argument is, and how all the material fits together. Often, chapter subheadings list elements of an argument that may show up on a quiz. Be alert to these clues.

      3 Read actively. Constantly ask yourself: Why is this important? How do these different facts fit together? What are the broad arguments here? How does this material relate to class lectures? How does it relate to the broad themes of the class? When you stop asking these questions, you are merely moving your eyes over the page, and that is a waste of time.

      4 Highlight or take notes. Some people prefer highlighting because it’s quicker than taking notes, but others think that writing down the most important points helps in recalling them later. Whichever method you choose (and you can do both), be sure you’re doing it properly.Highlighting. An entirely highlighted page will not give you any clues about what is important. Read each paragraph and ask yourself: What is the basic idea of this paragraph? Highlight that. Avoid highlighting all the examples and illustrations. You should be able to recall them on your own when you see the main idea. Beware of highlighting too little. If whole pages go by with no marking, you are probably not highlighting enough.Outlining. Again, the key is to write down enough, but not too much. Go for key ideas, terms, and arguments.

      5 Note all key terms, and be sure you understand the definition and significance.

      6 Do not skip tables and figures. These things are there for a purpose, because they convey crucial information or illustrate a point in the text. After you read a chart or graph or Big Picture infographic, make a note in the margin about what it means.

      7 Do not skip the boxes. They are not filler! The Don’t Be Fooled by . . . boxes provide advice on becoming a critical consumer of the many varieties of political information that come your way. Each Profile in Citizenship box highlights the achievements of a political actor pertinent to that chapter’s focus. They model citizen participation and can serve as a beacon for your own political power long after you’ve completed your American government course. And the Snapshot of America boxes help you understand who Americans are and how they line up on all sorts of dimensions.

      8 Make use of the book’s web site at http://edge.sagepub.com/barbourbrief8e. There you will find chapter summaries, flashcards, and practice quizzes that will help you prepare for exams.

      1 Power and Citizenship in American Politics

      Spencer Platt/Getty Images

      In Your Own Words

      After you’ve read this chapter, you will be able to

       1.1 Describe the role that politics plays in determining how power and resources, including control of information, are distributed in a society.

       1.2 Compare how power is distributed between citizens and government in different economic and political systems.

       1.3 Describe the enduring tension in the United States between self-interested human nature and public-spirited government and the way that has been shaped in a mediated world.

       1.4 Analyze the role of immigration and citizenship in American politics.

       1.5 Describe values that most Americans share, and the political debates that drive partisan divisions in American politics.

       1.6 Understand the essential reasons for approaching politics from a perspective of critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation.

       1.7 Describe the role and responsibilities of citizens in American politics.

      What’s at Stake . . . in Hashtag Activism?

      The last thing they wanted to do was become famous. Not this way, not now. But when seventeen of their classmates and teachers were murdered on February 14, 2018, by a disturbed former student, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, decided to make some noise.

      They had seen this movie before. There had been mass shootings. Ever since they were little they had practiced what to do if someone showed up with a gun in their classrooms. There was even an armed guard on their campus. And still, it happened again. So they knew the ritual that would follow.

      Every time this nation experiences a mass shooting, a grimly familiar routine follows. First there is unrelenting press coverage—of the dead, of the bereaved, of the shooter. Then those who lost loved ones make impassioned calls for more gun control and those who oppose gun control make equally impassioned declarations that we should not politicize tragedy, that it is too soon to talk about it. There are funerals. The president (usually) makes a speech. Then the press moves on to the next big news and only the grieving are left to testify before Congress, create foundations in the names of their loved ones, and implore people not to forget. Lather, rinse, repeat.

      But the MSD students knew the drill and were media savvy enough to figure out how to hack it. They were ready. Some, in the drama club, comfortable on stage; some, school journalists, eloquent and at ease with words; others, bright, articulate, privileged to attend a school with an embarrassment of extracurricular activities that had prepared them for their futures. Smart enough to know that their moment in the spotlight would be brief, they were determined to make it count.

      The shooting was on a Wednesday. Cameron Kasky was so angry he took to Facebook, first to announce that he and his brother were safe and then to vent. “I just want people to understand what happened and understand that doing nothing will lead to nothing. Why is that so hard to grasp?” His social media posts caught the eye of CNN, which asked him to write an op-ed piece on Thursday, which led to television appearances. It became apparent to Kasky that his words were helping to shape the story of what had happened and what it meant. “People are listening and people care,” Kasky wrote. “They’re reporting the right things.”¹

      To capitalize on that fickle national attention before it turned away, Kasky and several of his friends met that night to plan a social media campaign. By midnight they had a hashtag, #NeverAgain, social media accounts, and a message for politicians: legislate better background checks on gun buyers, or we will vote you out.

      MSD student Jaclyn Corin took to her own social media accounts to express her grief and anger at the loss of her friends. She, a girl who had never been political, also began to strategize. With the help of Florida Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she planned a bus trip for one hundred students to Tallahassee to lobby state lawmakers.

      By Friday, Corin and Kasky had joined forces, and on Saturday they added David Hogg, a student journalist who had conducted interviews while they were under fire; Sarah Chadwick, already famous for her angry, grief-filled tweets; and Emma González, whose speech at a local rally went viral. On Sunday they hit the morning talk shows to proclaim that the Never Again movement was planning the first March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., on March 24.

      Two weeks later (forever in the typical media cycle), the kids were still making news. Boycotts were organized to put pressure on companies doing business with the National Rifle Association (NRA), which blocked background checks. A National School Walkout was planned for the one-month anniversary of the shooting. Thousands of students across the nation participated. Famous people donated large sums to help fund the March 24 March for Our Lives. As Dahlia