Hey Hey Hey, Disclaimer. I always like letting my readers know that I'm a liberal person, and my opinions on political topics reflect that. Just keep that in mind when your reading my blog!
How does voting connect to linkage institution?
Well, The very definition of linkage institution is to have a structure in society that connects people to the government. So, by voting for our next president, governor, mayor, or any other position, you sir are connecting yourself to our government.
How does elections influence an individual's political beliefs?
Elections generate an influx in discussion, it is at this time that we are either trying to evaluate the political ideologies that our political choices provide, or we pick our political party and find holes in the other guy’s argument. It really is a time where people talk politics the most.
Ads, Ads, Ads. You’ll find political ads everywhere. Political parties are polishing their candidates to look the best, so they can get YOU to vote for them. During this time, some might find their opinions get changed, while others might find themselves reinforcing their opinions.
What election have you chosen to write about?
I have decided to write about the democratic national convention. This election was interesting, because despite how close the results were, one candidate(Clinton) didn’t refuse money from major political forces, thus giving her significantly more money to advertise and sell herself to voters
I chose Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders, competing in the democratic national convention. It was only a year ago that these two candidate had just finished battling out.
Okay! So let's taco about the candidates!
Candidate Numero Uno! : Bernie Sanders! :
(If you wanna know more about Sanders, watch this)
Mr Sanders came into the Democratic national convention as a democrat, fighting for a position in a big political party. However, prior to that, he was an independent, which more closely aligns with his progressive socialist policy.
Mr Sanders truly was a “workers” man. The vast majority of his ideas were representative of the American working class. He pushed for higher wages, universal health care, mitigating wealth inequality, free college, equality, and removing money from politics. (link here https://berniesanders.com/issues/). He also supported a lot of other things, but these were the topics that were most prominent during his campaign.
This article came after Mr Sanders admitted defeat in his presidential campaign(actually, it came out a few days ago).
Mr Sanders wanted to raise awareness that funding for public community healthcare's are have not been renewed by congress. Millions of people receive their health care through community health care centers, so it’s important that we ensure that they keep on chuggin. He believes that the lack of funding will cause many Americans to become underinsured, and believes the results of it will be disastrous. (As a liberal, I agree, healtcare is super important)
Mr Sander’s position on this issue indicates his left wing socialist views. He’s really trying to make sure everyone is covered.
Candidate Numero Dos! : Hillary Clinton :
Mrs Clinton is a tried and tested Democrat. She’s the embodiment of the party’s political ideology. Her husband was a former democratic president. There’s really nothing more to say about it.
Mrs Clinton really pushed for equality. She rallied with women, pushing for women empowerment. She, like bernie sanders, is a strong supporter of LGBT rights. She wanted strong foreign policy, so we can maintain status as a globalized society. Honestly, she and Mr Sanders agreed and most issues, just less socialist.
Infrastructure is boring, but very important if we want to be a developed society. You gotta have good roads, bridges to transport people and goods across the country. You need to have great internet infrastructure to get everyone connected. You also need a modernized, green energy grid if you want to
Mrs Clinton proposed a nearly 300,000,000,000$ deal that would modernize our infrastructure, improving roads, bridges and internet, and modernizing our energy infrastructure.
Mrs Clinton's push for an improvement in infrastructure shows that she believes in government’s ability to improve things for the better. She’s a steadfast liberal, and a steadfast democrat.
Hey There! It's Will. I'm here to dish out some more information on politics in the United States. Today, we are looking at the "corrupt" media.... Wait what?
**DISCLAIMER
I like to point out that, as with every source. I have bias. I'm definantly what someone would consider a liberal. I swing that way ;) So yea. I try my best to be as unbiased as I can be. But please keep this in mind when you are reading my little blog post.
The media, is basically the various platforms and sources that you would look at in order to be informed of the newz. Whenever you are getting information about anything that isn't entertainment, it's considered the media. It's important to realize that every source has bias, and it's watchers will reflect that bias when they go in to vote. So, when choosing sources to get you information, be responsible, and make sure you really are informed about the news.
Examples of media platforms include :
CNN, Fox News and various other Television channels. This is how a surprisingly large amount of America's citizens stay informed. Think of it as news on the telly.
CNN News.
Fox
The Press! : Think Newspapers, magazines, and to an extent, news sources online. Examples include : New York Times. Online examples include : Google News, Breitbart, etc.
Social Media : Think Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit and... idk Instagram(not sure about that last one). This isn't a specific source, but rather a platform for people to share... stuff(sorry I don't really know how social media works). You can get information on the news from Social Media, but I wouldn't hold any weight to it. It's really a place for people to express their beliefs, rather than a place to get information on the news. If you want to see how easily it is to get unreputable information on the social media, checkout the video that Trevor Noah did on it.
I guess we should probably listen to this guy.
Okay, I hope you kinda understand what the media is, and know a few examples of it. Lets move on to the real purpose of the post :)
Okay, So Mr Quesadilla(keeping his name anonymous) told us that we have to do some some investigation around conflicting news articles. We would have to look at news sources that sway on the opposite sides of the political spectrum. For my blog post, I decided to be as basic as possible, and chose the two sources that everyone knows : Fox News and the Cable News Network. So, lets get a bit of background on each of them.
(If you want the REAL news, watch the video above)
Lets start off with Foxy News.
Fox News is our liberal *cough* conservative news source. Much of their news has a conservative spin on it. Most of their readers are typically conservative.While most people know Fox for their television news, I decided to look at their online news articles instead. Just so you can get a gist on what they typically cover, here are some of the headlines they had when I checked(November 5th, 2017).
Look at this face. He (was) the face of Fox.
At Least 26 killed in Texas church massacre. Denounced by trump as an act of evil
Stand by me actor sparks fury with response to paul ryan offering prayers
Legendary Sports broadcaster Vin Scully won’t watch another NFL game due to anthem protests.
Yemen ports closed after 17 killed in Aden attack compared by Saudis to ‘act of war’
Iowa mom, 18, charged after 2 year old twins found naked outside near highway.
Women under fire after criticizing traffic reporter at” politically correct” tv station as inappropriately dressed.
US sanctions are hurting Christians two.
Transgender Lesson gets New York 7th-grade teacher suspended.
Veterans back legalizing medicinal marijuana in American legion survey
Why trump’s tax plan has me feeling so optimistic.
Trump should confront china on North Korean nukes during his Asian trip
While many of the articles are just general coverage, if you take a look at those last couple articles, you'll notice a bit of a bias. I try not to judge a book off its cover(or an article off it's title), but, it's quite obvious that that particular fox news writer did introduce some bias into his article. If you look into the articles, they typically cite conservative sources and speakers, which introduces bias, and makes it hard for you to be completely objective about whatever your covering.
OKAY, Now lets switch to the next source : CNN.
CNN is my left wing news source. They are what I would consider the antithesis of Fox news. They typically put a more liberal spin of the news. While CNN is usually a bit to the middle of the politician spectrum, it's important for readers to realize that it, like all news sources, still has bias. Here are some headlines that I found as of November 5th, 2017 :
My Lord and savior, Anderson Cooper
Texas Parishioners described as merciful and forgiving.
American Woman wins nyc marathon for 1st time in 40 years.
Trump says “era of strategic patience is over” for North Korea.
Netflix cuts ties with Kevin Spacey
Self-driving cars could make jaywalking legal .
America’s unyielding plague of gun violence.
Liberals are still obsessed by trump’s victory
Trump’s clinton allegations assault rule of law.
Student loan benefit on the chopping block.
iPhone X review, the future takes getting used to
Electric vehicle tax credit gets spiked in the House tax bill
Northern Lights
Man Killed in 1983 for “socializing” with white woman.
Retired Marine : America was prepared for me when I had to come home.
Trump’s approval rating hits historic lows.
Brazille : I found no evidence Democratic primary was rigged.
Two of the 5 deadliest mass shootings in the modern US happened in the last 35 days.
When there isn’t a crowd.
Just taking a look at the articles posted, one can believe that there is less bias. But if you read into the articles, you'll find a liberal spin on some of the information. I've found that CNN will have conservative sources, but will take their worst points, and explain how they are wrong, rather than showing the whole source. Okay, now we have introduced our competing news sources, it's time to introduce the topic! The current event I chose for my fourth blog post is about the Graham-Cassidy health bill. This was a republican proposal, shifting the responsibilities of healthcare funding to the state governments, while reducing the overall Federal healthcare spending. This proposal was met with much disagreement with both the republicans and the democrats. The democrats, who are in support of stronger federal government and more government programs to improve standards of living, are very opposed to the bill, since it reduces funding to the medicare. Centrists and center-republicans are in support of the bill, since it helps bridge and compromise between the republicans and the democrats, while hardcore conservatives scrutinize the legislation, believing the federal government is overstepping its powers offering nationwide healthcare incentives.
Graham and Cassidy presenting their bill.
Here are the main points that CNN brings up :
To get the 60 votes it needs to repeal and replace Obamacare is currently an impossibility in the current Senate.
Many of the states that will lose federal funding under Graham-Cassidy are democratic states that would be receiving a large hit, unable to provide baseline health care for it’s citizens
Many of the states with a larger Republican base would be receiving more funding. However, many of the states that supported trump(who supported the implementation of this bill) would be impacted dramatically.
Many republican senators didn’t believe the bill would be supporting the republican agenda
Unsure if republicans will really move on. Trump said Tuesday that he was “disappointed” in several senators, in an apparent reference to McCain, Paul, and Collins”
Here are the main points that Fox News :
“Collins stated that Graham-Cassidy bill, was “deeply flawed. Many steadfast conservatives oppose the bill.
The bill got some last minute revisions in hopes of getting more support.
The legislation is largely seen as a Hail Mary pass by Republicans to make good on their years-long promise to eradicate Obamacare.
Would implement a block grant program that gives funding to states which would provide leeway for each state to handle funding independently.
Paul said the plan would further increase the nation’s debt and doesn’t “repeal a single Obamacare insurance regulation” such as essential health benefit rules.
The bill needs 50 votes to pass, with Vice President Pence potentially casting a tie-breaking vote. Pence said he’s “all in” for the plan. .
So, After reading the fox news and CNN articles, I have come to the conclusion that, at least these specific articles, are both not terribly biased, and actually bring evidence from both sides. It was surprising actually, neither article showed definitive bias, that would've swayed my opinion. Both sources used evidence from the different political spectrum objectively. It was refreshing to see this, since the news has become very polarizing recently. However, just to make it clear, there still is bias. Fox News still chose more sources that aligned with the conservative legislation, while CNN chose more sources that didn't want the legislation to pass. It's nowhere near as bad, here is an example. For the fox news video, skip to the last 30 seconds.
Just because I only showed a Fox News video here, don't think that CNN is any saint. They do have a political bias, it's just much less blatantly obvious.
Conclusion
Media is weird.This whole news thing is super complicated. Maybe its just best to live under a rock anyway. I could ignore all of Trumps twitter posts, which would be nice.
Hello there! Today we are going to talk about political parties, specifically the Green Party :)
**DISCLAIMER
-I want to ensure transparency when I'm bringing in my own personal thoughts, or when I may express bias(intentionally or unintentionally). So, I'll just go out and state that my personal views align most with the Democratic Party. I'm defiantly liberal in my stances. Just puttin' it out there. k? Cool.
Okay, well then... Let's talk about the Green Party :)
-The Green party is a left wing political party founded in 2001. They typically emphasize policy that is for the betterment of the environment, social justice, gender equality, etc. Most of their more notable policy consists of liberal takes on social and environmental issues. Currently they are the 4th largest political party, behind the big two, and the libertarian party. They have several members elected into state legislatures.
The green party is know to be very friendly to people of the LGBT, and ensures that their policy reflects that.
The green party is known to advocate for environmentally conscious policy.
The Artifact I'll be using to represent the Green Party's values is this one. Here's a quick rundown of the 10 commandments :
Grassroots democracy : putting as much of the policy and decision making back into the hands of the people. The green party wants a higher percentage of public engaging in political participation
Social Justice and Equal Opportunity : Everyone should benefit equally from every resource in the country. As such, we should implement policy that allows for equal opportunity. No one should be discriminated against because of their race, gender, sex, age, nationality, religion, or any other way.
Ecological Wisdom : We need to set up policy that will benefit us now, later, and after that! Long term sustainability is important if we want to prosper as a society
Non-Violence : No one should be fighting. We need to ensure that criminals are educated properly, that people are kept out of violence and crime, and that domestic, interstate and/or international disputes are handled with words, not guns.
Decentralization : The concentration of wealth and power today is an uneven scale between the top 10% and the rest of us. We've gotta implement policy that balances out the power and wealth. However, the importance of safety, regulation, amoungst others does require some centralized government.
Community Based Economics! : The current economic situation puts too much power to the top. The green party supports employee ownership, workplace democracy, higher working class wages, lower executive wages.
Respect for Diversity: This nation stated out with immigrants, so we must bring in immigrants. Diversity is very important to implement policy that gives equal opportunities and representation.
Personal and Global Responsibility : People should be encourages to improve their own well being, enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We need to develop an environment that fosters peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.
Future Focus and Sustainability : Every action the green party takes is motivation by long term goals. Natural resources should be conserved, waste must be reduced,etc . We need to implement policy that reflects these long term goals and aspirations.
Okay, that was a lot :(. We are gonna do a real quick analysis of our piece of evidence to provide some insight.
LIBERAL! : It's quite evident from the policies detailed that the party shifts heavily to the left. From power to the people, to ecological responsibility, every decision they make indicates a more liberal, open stance on politics.
SOCIALIST!?!? : So, we live in a democracy. However, many of their principles and beliefs are similar to that of socialism. Ideas such community based economics are socialist, and represent socialist values.
WORKING CLASS : If there's any group that the green party represents, it would be the the working class. Higher wages, employee owned corporations, grassroots democracy... These all benefit the working class the most. So, I believe that the green party derived out of the working class' demands.
So now that we have a rudimentary understanding of the Green Party and it's policies, lets check out it's 2016 presidential candidate : Jill Stien.
Jill Stein who?
Yea, you heard me right, Jill Stein exists, and you could've voted for her instead of Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump.
According to Wikipedia, Jill Stein is an American Physician and politician. She is the green party's presidential nominee. She is what I would call "the face" of the green party. The Artificial I have chosen for Jill Stein, is a video that CNN did on her on August 30th, 2016. Here are some points that she made :
Get the money out of politics! Everything should be publicly financed.
Free public higher education, get rid of student debt.
Minimum 15$ Living wage
Climate Change is a thing, we need to clean up our energy system, and transform our economy. Renewable energy by 2020
Foreign policy based on national law, rather than economic and military domination
Drug issues considered health issues
Healthcare is universal. Every age
Abortion is an issue between a woman and her physician.
Immigration is a source of strength, diversity and creativity. Let's welcome them :) and have our immigration policy reflect that.
After looking at that Artifact about Jill Stein, here are my impressions.
Her beliefs are very much in line with left wing policy
Even though it's evident she is in an affluent class, she's obviously very much dedicated to the people(minimum wage, drug issues, healthcare).
Wouldn't have made a terrible president. But I do see her ideology coming in conflict with the other branches of government.
Just a good person, who implements policy that is for the betterment of the working man.
Reflections : Just some thoughts about this blog post
The green party overall has some good ideas, and really support the working class.
They are very much left wing, and support a socialist agenda.
However, I believe that they aren't stetting up their government for success. They want to reduce the power of government, while implementing policies that require more centralization and more control to be successful.
I hope you liked this blog, and I'll seeya next time :)
