{"id":12169,"date":"2025-12-18T22:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/?p=12169"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:32:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:32:13","slug":"6-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/2025\/12\/18\/6-1\/","title":{"rendered":"6.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1. Who wrote the Constitution and who was left out?<\/span><\/p>

The Constitution was written mostly by rich, property-owning men\u2014like big landowners, merchants, and business elites. They had money, land, and education, so they got to make the rules. Ordinary people, like small farmers, workers, and poor people, didn\u2019t get to participate. Women, enslaved people, and Native Americans were also completely left out. For example, Reading 6.1 says most of the delegates owned a lot of land or businesses, while small farmers and laborers had no voice in government.<\/span><\/p>

2. Was the social class structure the same as today?<\/span><\/p>

It was kind of the same, but also different. Back then, wealth and property gave you almost all the power. Most people couldn\u2019t vote or run for office unless they owned land. Today, almost everyone can vote, but rich people still have more influence because of money, education, and connections. So the details are different, but class still matters.<\/span><\/p>

3. Why were the people who wrote the Constitution afraid of democracy?<\/span><\/p>

The wealthy delegates were scared that ordinary people\u2014like farmers and workers\u2014would pass laws that could take away their land or money. They worried about \u201cmob rule\u201d and wanted to protect their wealth. That\u2019s why the Constitution has things like the Electoral College, the Senate, and checks and balances: to make it harder for the majority to change things too quickly and to keep power in the hands of rich people<\/span><\/p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Who wrote the Constitution and who was left out? The Constitution was written mostly by rich, property-owning men\u2014like big landowners, merchants, and business elites. They had money, land, and education, so they got to make the rules. Ordinary people, like small farmers, workers, and poor people, didn\u2019t get to participate. Women, enslaved people, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-6-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12170,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12169\/revisions\/12170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}