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    Election!: A Kid's Guide to Picking Our President
    Election!: A Kid's Guide to Picking Our President
    Election!: A Kid's Guide to Picking Our President
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Election!: A Kid's Guide to Picking Our President

    By Dan Gutman

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    About this ebook

    A fun, funny, and informative guide to the weird world of American politics How does the president get his job? How do people know who will win an election before everybody’s voted? Do the candidates hate each other? Dan Gutman takes on his strangest subject ever: the American political system. Reaching through history from the days of the founding fathers to today’s voting system, Gutman tackles complex subjects in a clear, easy-to-understand way. Even grown-ups will find something in here that they’ve never learned before. Politics are a crazy game, and with Dan Gutman teaching you the rules, you’re going to have a blast learning how to play.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateAug 21, 2012
    ISBN9781453261750
    Election!: A Kid's Guide to Picking Our President
    Author

    Dan Gutman

    Dan Gutman is the New York Times bestselling author of the Genius Files series; the Baseball Card Adventure series, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies around the world; and the My Weird School series, which has sold more than 35 million copies. Thanks to his many fans who voted in their classrooms, Dan has received nineteen state book awards and ninety-two state book award nominations. He lives in New York City with his wife. You can visit him online at dangutman.com.

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      Book preview

      Election! - Dan Gutman

      ELECTION!

      A KID’S GUIDE TO PICKING OUR PRESIDENT

      Dan Gutman

      Contents

      Author’s Note

      Introduction

      Chapter 1: The Presidency

      Chapter 2: Our Government

      Chapter 3: The Campaign

      Chapter 4: Candidates

      Chapter 5: Voting

      Chapter 6: The Election

      Words You’ll Hear in an Election Year

      Find Out More!

      Presidents of the United States

      Author’s Note

      It would have sounded awkward and repetitive to hear the words the president over and over again in this book. Because we haven’t had a female president yet, it would have sounded even more awkward to refer to the president as she or he/she. So within these pages, the president is sometimes referred to as the president and sometimes referred to as he. No offense is intended to females, one of whom will surely be elected president of the United States sometime soon.

      Introduction

      Every four years, the grown-ups of America go a little crazy. You see grown men and women wearing funny hats and T-shirts, waving flags, putting goofy bumper stickers on their cars, buttons on their shirts, and signs on their front lawns. There are silly songs, slogans, ads, and balloons. It’s like one big yearlong party.

      In fact, what looks on the surface like craziness is actually very serious business. It is all part of the process of choosing the person who will lead the nation for the next four years.

      When George Washington was elected in 1789, some people wanted to call him His Highness, His Elective Majesty, His Supremacy, or His Mightiness. In the end, they settled on a simpler, more down-to-earth title—the president of the United States.

      Since Washington’s time, the presidency has changed quite a bit and so has the process of electing a president, our nation’s only nationally elected office. But one thing is constant. The decision about who will be president is one of the most important decisions that our country makes.

      This year, you may be asking yourself what all the hoopla is about. A lot of questions may have popped into your head. How powerful is the president? What happens if the president dies? What’s the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? Can my mom or dad run for president? Do the candidates hate each other? How does a voting machine work? What can kids do to influence the election?

      The purpose of this book is to answer those questions (and about 120 more) in a simple and straight­forward manner. Some of the answers may surprise you.

      This book may not answer every question you have about the presidential election, but it will cover a lot of them. And it will give you a basic understanding of what all this national craziness is about.

      Chapter 1

      · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

      The Presidency

      Why do we have a president?

      When the Revolutionary War ended in 1781 and America had won its independence from England, we didn’t have a president. We didn’t have a Constitution, either. At least not right away.

      At first, the new nation was governed by Congress, which was a group of representatives from each of the thirteen original states. The problem was that each state had very different opinions about the way the country should be run.

      There were arguments between states. At one point, Connecticut was claiming that it owned a large part of Pennsylvania.

      It became clear that a stronger central government was needed to pull all the states together in a way that would be fair to all, big and small, north and south, rural and urban.

      From May 25 through September 17, 1787, the Founding Fathers of our country gathered together at the old State House in Philadelphia. There, they wrote the Constitution, which is the foundation of our government. According to the Constitution, the executive branch of our government would be headed by a president. (For more about our government, see Chapter 2: Our Government.)

      THE CONSTITUTION (Article II, Section 1):

      The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

      ·

      Who were the Founding Fathers?

      They were fifty-five delegates from the twelve states (Rhode Island did not participate). Some were lawyers. Some were farmers. You may have heard some of their names before: George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Jefferson was in Europe at the time.

      ·

      What about the Founding Mothers?

      In the 1700s, women were not believed to be capable of making important decisions. They did not participate in our government until attitudes toward women changed much later. (See Chapter 5: Voting. Are there any grown-ups who aren’t allowed to vote?)

      ·

      Why didn’t the Founding Fathers make the head of our government a king?

      America had fought a bloody war to break away from the tyrannical rule of England’s King George III. Americans did not want to start a new nation based on the same system that England had. They felt that the people could rule themselves. So they created a new form of government, one that was run by the people and not by a single person. (See Chapter 2: Our Government.)

      ·

      So is the president the boss of the United States?

      Not really. The first words of the Preamble to the Constitution are We, the people … The people of the United States are the boss of the president, not the other way around. The president, as well as all our representatives, are selected by the people they will lead.

      ·

      But isn’t the president of the United States the most powerful person in the world?

      You could say that, but in the structure of our government, the president is not as powerful as you might think. Without the cooperation of the public, the Congress, and the courts, he is really powerless.

      For instance, the president doesn’t determine how the United States spends its money. Every year he has to present a budget to Congress and fight for its approval. And the Congress can pass a bill even if the president vetoes it.

      ·

      A bill? A veto? What does that mean?

      A bill is a proposed law. The laws of this country are made by Congress, not by the president. When a bill is approved by the Congress, it is sent to the president. If he signs it, it becomes a law. If he

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