The Communist View on the US Constitution

1. What main point does this textbook seem to be making to Soviet students? Note at least two examples it uses to try to get this point across.

A first main point made in this article is that even though we stress equality, it doesn't always happen. For example,when the Bill of Rights were put into effect, not everyone had rights. The Native Americans never enjoyed the same rights as white Americans. Neither did African-American slaves until amendments were put into the Constitution. A quote I thought was interesting was "These 'freedoms' exist even now on paper, but they are constantly violated." The reason people first came to America was for equality, and even now it is a fight within the country. Another interesting thing was that Russia only sees our country as being good for the bourgeois. They see our democratic country as the bourgeois ruling. Another main point is how we are not advanced. They state that gaining our independence was good but it did not advance us at all. Their example is that slavery was legal for almost 100 years are eventually made our country have a war within itself.

2. Give two examples from the excerpt of statements of fact and two examples of opinions. How does the excerpt reflect a bias against the United States?

One example of fact is about the Bill of Rights. In the article, there is a paragraph about when the Bill of Rights was added and what it protected the people against. Right after it, there is a statement that is purely opinion. "These 'freedoms' exist even now on paper, but they are constantly violated." Another example of fact in this paper is when the author explains how America became independent from Britain. The second example of opinion is how the Soviet Union sees our government as only being for the good of the rich. This article shows a bias on our form of government. Throughout the entire thing, they make cracks at the way we decided to form our government.

3. Do you think this Soviet textbook's criticism of the United States are valid?

I think that their criticism is valid. They have a right to teach their students how they want to. If they want to teach them that the American government is wrong and has many flaws then they should be able to. everyone is entitled to their own opinion. We have no right to get angry at them for saying these things about our government when we do the same to theirs in our textbooks. Almost everyone in the United States sees the Soviet's government as being horrible. To them, it's normal. I think some of their opinions are wrong but I have no right in telling them to stop teaching their students what they think.