Major revisions

I decided to use my paradigm shift essay to make major revisions on. I focused on my argument and the narrative of the essay.

For my argument,

1. I moved the paragraph starting with "Although our society has never been as advanced as it is now" from after the paragraph starting with "While the 1950s" to before.
2. I went into further specifics regarding the "numerous epidemics" I talked about.
3. I removed a piece of information that didn't substantiate my claim. There was a statistic that showed an increase in government spending on researching integrative medicine which is a combination of drug treatments along with other forms of alternative treatments like acupuncture. This was located at the end of the paragraph beginning with, "according to the University of Maryland" Government spending has almost nothing to do with public attitudes toward homeopathics.

For the narrative,

1. I added a hook. I added a hook that focused on the absurdity of the homeopathic ideology. The doctor tells you what your symptoms are and prescribes nothing - homeopathic medicines are usually so dilute that there is nothing except sugar in them.
2. I added a transition between paragraphs 5 and now 7. This link serves to move from the popular sphere to the scientific sphere of the understanding of the mechanisms of disease. The transition begins: "It would have been difficult to predict"
3. I added a transition between the second to last paragraph and the last paragraph. This now summarizes the shift between science and homeopathy more concisely and allows a smoother move into the conclusion.
4. To improve the flow I fixed up weird sounding sentences and corrected grammar.

Advocacy #2

The purpose of my advocacy project is to evoke more public concern regarding American foreign policy in Syria. I would also encourage the American people, my audience, to be more critical of hawkish politicians on both sides of the aisle.

 My partner would be the Gatestone Institute. I chose the Gatestone Institute because they support a strong public knowledge of foreign affairs. From the Gatestone Institute website:

Gatestone Institute, a non-partisan, not-for-profit international policy council and think tank is dedicated to educating the public.

I think these ideas would gain the most traction as a video. A video is most useful because it's accessible and easily shareable. Other modes may be more intimate, but a video would reach more people and it would perhaps get a more widespread conversation started.

I will primarily be using the rhetorical strategies of pathos and logos. I will use pathos to get the audience to wonder why Trump took the action he did. I'm thinking of using footage of helpless victims in Syrian government gas attacks. And perhaps more footage of President Trump choking on words justifying the missile strike.

Issue Brief Beginnings

Draft of Exordium (The hook)
In early April, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed to the US Supreme Court. However, this was done by the forceful nuclear option. Supreme Court nominees were once subject to the filibuster, prior to the recent Senate rule-change. Our country depends on the system of checks and balances that provide stability in an increasingly divided nation. If President Trump has the ability to nominate more originalist judges to the Supreme Court, like Gorsuch, these balances would begin to strain. Such nominations would drastically change the path of our democracy long after the Trump administration.

Partition of Issue Brief

• Introduction/brief history
• Overview of idea of the filibuster
• Important vocabulary: Majority, simple majority, minority, cloture...
• Most recent Senate rule change
• History of Senate rule changes regarding filibuster
• Filibuster used in the House of Representatives until 1824
• History of filibuster in the Roman Senate
• Defining the problem
• Filibuster is on the rise: graphics, explanation
• Significance
• Popular Senate tactics used in the past
• How were those dealt with
• Dealing with the filibuster in other countries
• Solution proposition

Narrative (The story)
The rules have changed. Thesis. The Senate used to be like this... If you go back 2000 years we will see how this tactic lead to the demise of the Roman civilization. The problem with the current system is this: ... Looking to history for possible solutions: how were similar senate tactics dealt with. Looking to other countries for inspiration. What can be learned from these solutions. The solution.

Thesis: Unchecked, the filibuster is a senate tool that is potentially dangerous to our democracy. The power of the filibuster must be limited to improve the productivity of our judicial and legislative bodies.

Advocacy Project #1

For my advocacy project, I'm thinking of creating a short video to simplify the Syrian civil war and all the conflicts of interest it creates. The exigence for my advocacy piece would be the recent United States missile strike of a Syrian air base.

My audience would be the American public. I would be advocating for the American public to be more knowledgeable regarding the Syrian civil war. The current American public knowledge of the crisis is that Assad is bad and the Syrian rebels are good. And that Russia is bad for supporting Assad. That's about it. The conflict is way more complicated than that. One of Trump's campaign promises was to defeat ISIS. If President Trump is to defeat ISIS American troops would need to be deployed in Syria - further complicating things. The American people need to know how this would shake up the current conflict and what exactly the American interests are in Syria. The goal of my project would be to show the complexity of the issue concisely - hopefully in less than 2 minutes.

I'm thinking I can use the Gatestone Institute: International Policy Council for the home of this piece. According to the website, The Gatestone Institute promotes:

• Institutions of Democracy and the Rule of Law;
• Human Rights
• A free and strong economy
• A military capable of ensuring peace at home and in the free world
• Energy independence
• Ensuring the public stay informed of threats to our individual liberty, sovereignty and free speech.

One constraint for my PSA will be making sure to address one or more of these tenets. Other important constraints are time, and simplistic word choice - that's not demeaning.