Political Parties and Politicians

A political party is extremely important in the process of voting and in Democracy overall. Political parties help people identify and connect with others who have similar beliefs. Identifying with a party makes voting easier and can, at times, present alternate approaches to government. While there are many different parties, the two biggest parties are the Democrats and Republicans. 

I chose to write about the Democratic party because I feel that their ideals closely align with the things I believe in. Democrats feel as though cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls. In short, they believe people are stronger together. The ideals of Democrats differ greatly from ideals from, for example, the Republicans. Republicans believe in the protection of unborn babies and don't believe in things like same-sex marriage and gun control. Democrats believe in being able to choose whether or not a woman goes through an abortion and believes in same-sex marriage and gun control. These are just a few of the many, and most commonly known, differences between the Democrats and Republicans.

Working wages has become an increasingly large problem in our country today. Democrats believe that minimum wage needs to be raised to at least $15 an hour so people are able to survive with the minimum wage they earn (https://democrats.org/about/party-platform/). They believe that this can be done through unions. By joining a union, they believe workers will then have more power in the economy, ultimately leading to a $15/hour wage. However, this is ultimately a personal choice, for no one can make you join a union. When it comes to what the government can do, Democrats believe that "the trillion dollars spent annually by the government on contracts, loans, and grants should be used to support good jobs that rebuild the middle class."

When it comes to the article I read from the Democratic website (https://democrats.org/about/party-platform/), the language in this website is very professional and promotes a fairly optimistic view of the future through Democratic principles. This website, similar to all political party websites, wants readers to believe in their ideals and principles. The Democratic party does this by talking about what the future would ideally look like and discuss programs that would help make those a reality. Additionally, they choose to point out the wrongdoings of other political parties. For example, they say: “Whereas the Republican Presidential nominee rooted for the housing crisis, Democrats will continue to fight for those families who suffered the loss of their homes.” This shows us that they want to point out the flaws of other political parties and trying to highlight their weak points. There will always be bias in everything we read, and in this case, the Democratic party wants you to believe in their principles and will do anything to make you believe them. They will do this even if it means withholding information or bending the truth in order to make their ideals known to readers. Finally,  they do have a donation box in the corner of the website which leads me to believe that donations are an important way of fundraising for the party.

I think that the political party that resonates with me the most is the Democratic party. After looking at their opinions and stances on different issues, their ideals seem to best fit with what I believe. For example, I chose to look at their stance on minimum wage jobs. Personally, I know that there are many people in this country who live off of a minimum wage job for various different reasons. Regardless, many people need the paycheck from minimum wage jobs in order to survive. This is increasingly becoming a problem around the country, especially in the Bay Area. As of late, it is becoming nearly impossible to live in or around San Francisco if you only have a minimum wage job. The cost of rent and buying a house is extremely pricey and other necessities have become increasingly expensive. If someone is left to a job paying $11 an hour without any help from family, they likely won’t be able to live in a house because costs are just too much to support with only a minimum wage job. I think it would be beneficial to many cities around the country to raise minimum wage because sometimes that’s the only paycheck people are able to get. However, this specific belief is not the only reason why I believe I resonate with the Democratic party the most. Overall, I think many of the ideals of the Democratic party closely align to many of the beliefs I have.

Today, Jackie Speier, a Democrat, is the Representative of the district between South San Francisco and East Palo Alto. However, Jackie Speier’s journey to becoming a Representative did not come without hardship. Before she was elected, Leo J. Ryan was the Representative of the district she is now Representative of. The both of them took a trip to Guyana to rescue some of the members of a cult being held at the People’s Temple. Ryan was shot to death and Speire was shot five times at the airport. After multiple surgeries and a long road to recovery, she decided that she wanted to get back up again and ran to be Representative in 1979.

Today, she is a big advocate for women’s rights, she loves working for the public good, and fights for the security of Americans. Her fight for women’s rights consisted of advocating for fundamental reforms to end sexual assault in the military and college campuses and works towards the end of the gender pay gap through the Equal Rights Amendment and Paycheck Fairness Act. When it comes to prioritizing the public good, Speier has gotten tough on big banks, works to keep housing and student loans affordable, and protects private information from cyber attacks, among other things. Finally, her emphasis on a strong national defense has been supported through her works to prevent terrorist attacks by fighting for improved cyber defenses and sound management practices at the Pentagon. Besides being a Representative, Speier serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and is co-chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus in order to ensure she can fight for the rights of the public.

This is a video of Jackie Speier taking to the House Floor to talk about women’s rights, including the access to clinics and abortion coverage, in opposition to a Republican amendment that greatly limited these things.

A big part of Jackie Speier’s beliefs centers around women’s issues. In the video, she brings in a very personal story to share with those in the room: her own story of having a procedure in relation to her pregnancy. Speier ended up losing the baby at 17 weeks. She mentioned how it wasn’t her intention to bring up her personal anecdote but couldn’t help it after one of the people in the room criticized the procedure and women who have had the procedure. Because Speier experienced the procedure first-hand and was faced with tragedy, she comes from the perspective of someone who lost their child due to extremely unfortunate circumstances. Because she experienced the feeling of losing her child to a procedure, she has the ability to speak on the issue. In order to get her point across, Speier starts her argument with the anecdote and continues with her beliefs as to what needs to be done next. One limitation in her argument, though, was that there was little statistical evidence to help back up her claims and ideas while she was speaking. She relied heavily on her own experiences and ideals, appealing to the audience’s pathos, to help convey her point. One thing that is worth mentioning is that Speier was addressing a comment made by a man. Culturally, the societal “norms” and social class hierarchy have created significant differences between men and women, altering thoughts, beliefs, and ideals of people today. The man trying to downplay the procedure highlights exactly how society has the ability to mold the minds and beliefs of others, and shows the gap between males and females.

This video is of Representative Jackie Speier speaking on the House Floor about her own struggles with pregnancy and feminine procedures taken from her website (https://speier.house.gov/). Women’s issues are something Speier dedicates a lot of her time to because she is so passionate about it. This video shows us how she is fighting for the rights of women even if other people in Congress try to shut her down or don’t believe in what she has to say. It was said that after her speech, women from all over the country began to reach out to her with gratitude for speaking out on a topic that most people are too uncomfortable to talk about. This is just one of many ways that Speier fights for the rights of women while being a Representative.