Page 2 of 7 ZOOM Political science 202Mr.
LarsonTENNANCOUR POLITICAL PLATFORM2017Tennancour Political Platform 2017 I do not believe indedicating myself to a specific party, I have ideas and opinions that do notalways agree with one party, so I would rather not identify with one or theother, just as myself.I believe that the writers of the constitution had thebest interests of our country in mind when drafting the paper that is thegroundwork of our government, but they lived in a different time. Since thenmany of the things that were writing about are old and outdated, they eitherdon’t exist or have changed. We have the internet and cell phones that weren’taround then and many other things that they didn’t have so it wasn’t a problemfor them to be mentioned and protected by the constitution from the law. Ibelieve that the constitution should be updated to fit in with our modernstandard of living to include things that we have now and to get rid of partsthat do not apply to the people of today. If we keep adding amendments to it,it’s going to make the document longer as time goes on and the problem of itbeing outdated is still going to be there.
The next couple of generations mighthave things that we would never have thought of or even know what half of the stuffthat we have and the constitution might not apply to them, the same way some ofit doesn’t apply to our current generations and the same way it is for thewriters and everything that we have today. This does not mean to rewrite it butto keep it up to date and keep all the ideas and structure of the document thesame. We do not have a militia to be regulated or slaves that count as 3/5 of awhite man or any other free person so things like that could be updated ortaken out completely and wording could be changed to modern language andgrammar. I believe that immigration is not as bad as everyone thinks it is.Immigrants have constitutional rights as much as legal citizens. They do nothave all the rights legal citizens do, but they have the basics. I think thatthe DACA program is a good thing for immigrants who are here illegally solelybased because it’s for kids and families that only wanted to best opportunityand a chance to have a different and better life.
There are requirements to beeligible to receive a work permit and remain in the country, so it means thatnot every person can get one. For example, a couple of requirements are: thatyou must be in school or at least have a high school Tennancour Political Platform 2017 diploma, be an honorablydischarged veteran in the military, and have not been convicted of any seriouscrime. Immigrants help the economy by making the United States money and doingthe less desirable jobs usually for less pay.
Even though it isn’t fair thatthey do not get paid the same amount an American would, they are here to givetheir family a better life and that’s all they want, and for most illegalimmigrants that’s what they come to the United States for. Whether or not theyare in the United States illegally, they have the same rights that Americanshave except for the right to vote, own a gun, and aren’t allowed to have selectjobs because they are still people who want to live in our country and beconsidered as one of our people. It’s a long process to become a legal citizenand DACA could be an option for them until they have gone through the processand are granted legal citizenship and then it wouldn’t be a problem for them tolive here.
There is no way to know how long a person or family will be able torenew their visa if or when they become legal citizens. I feel that there should be a basic level ofhealthcare for people who cannot afford it or have a job that doesn’t havethose kinds of benefits. For the people whose jobs have good benefits then thatis up to them. But for people to not be able to get the care they need becausethey do not have enough money or whatever it is, seems cruel. It’s not thepeople who have money and live in a good home and are able to take care ofthemselves that need the most healthcare, it’s the people who do not live ingood neighborhoods, the people who are struggling to get by that need the mosthelp. All those people need are the basics covered so they do not have to worryabout how they are going to take care of themselves or their family. A coupleof years ago most people were not able to get health insurance so people whowere born with pre-existing conditions were out of luck and could not get care.To put whether parents and families can save their baby because of money iswrong.
It should not be up to the family to save their child, it should begranted to them. Children are the future, they should be saved and protected atall costs if it is something that can be done and be treated. A family shouldnot have to lose a child because they could not afford it. If people think thattaxes going up to Tennancour Political Platform 2017 give families who can notafford healthcare isn’t fair to them, or a rise in their insurance plan, thenthere is something wrong with their morals.
If the positions were switched I ampositive that they would want help in any way to make sure that their familywould be in good health. If something can be done to help people live a betterlife at the cost of people who have more money must pay a little more, itshould be done to make our country a better place. I believe that politics arecontrolled by people who are rich.
To go along with that I believe that ourcountry runs on money. Everything is always about money. If a person offers youmoney to lean a little towards a subject that you do not care about or anopinion, why would you not take the money and forget about your morals? But itis not fair for people who do not have the money or aren’t high in society andcannot influence politicians or anybody who is high up to make a difference.And the problem with people or interest groups giving money to politicaloffices is that you cannot take away their right to do what they want withtheir money. Those interest groups and other higher-ups could have hundreds ormore people going against your opinion and then it’s up in the air as to how itcould play out.
The person who we elected would not be listening to us orthinking about what is best for us just because they want the money or to bere-elected more than pleasing the public. They are supposed to like publicservants, to listen to the people and have our interest in their heart. So, weshould be able to trust them to do the right thing without money or promisesfrom lobbyists or interest groups or wealthy people getting in the way. Thereis no way to know how much power interest groups or other individuals have toinfluence a politicians’ opinion, it could be more than being loyal toconstituents so if a person is not doing their duty to their people then theyare in the wrong line of work and should not be in office. People in officeshould be more concerned with their approval rating than listening to outsidepeople trying to get their way. If officials were focused on pleasing thepublic and doing what is best for them then they would get reelected withouthaving to receive money from parties of people that may want them to changetheir vote or stance on a subject. Tennancour Political Platform 2017 I believe that the publicis not aware that there is a bias in media. You may not be getting yourinformation from a neutral source, especially about politics.
Their favoritemedia source may lean to the left or right on the political spectrum. Thepeople may think that they are being well informed when they are only hearinghalf the story that is not impartial. The media does this to appeal to theirreaders and to sell stories. If they are a left-leaning source, then they willpost in favor of them and try to make the right look bad or leave them outcompletely and vice versa. They would not run the risk to post both sidesbecause their readers could potentially get upset if it is not in favor of whatthey like and might not read the article or stop reading the source. And thosepeople aren’t going to read a source that does not believe in what they believein. I think that the media should give a little bit about the opposite side totry to get their readers more informed, but it is also the reader’sresponsibility to do more research and not to believe that one source has allthe answers. I think in general people should be more informed that they areprobably not getting an unbiased opinion about their news from the newspaper,magazines, internet, or any source of news.
There are neutral sources andsources that are on the other side of the spectrum, you just must find them andwant to expand your mind and try to be rid of bias or at least be aware thatyou have a bias and not be ignorant to believe everything you see and read. Ifyou know you could try to correct it if desired, anything would be better thanto be closed minded and only read and accept the news that they agree with. Abig issue that I believe strongly in is the death penalty and that it shouldnot be a national law. I do not see the point in killing someone for a crimewhen they could spend life in jail or prison and be punished for the rest oftheir life as opposed to executing them and they are just done and gone and donot have to suffer through prison or jail. I believe that if a state wants toexecute people then it should be up to the state government to decide what isbest for their people and state. If it were to become a national law, thenstates that are not in favor of the death penalty would be forced to executepeople for doing crimes that are punishable by death.
I do understand that thecost of housing Tennancour Political Platform 2017 an inmate until they dieis expensive and that the crime they committed may be punishable by death, butthen you are killing someone and in a way putting them out of their misery. Ifthe crime that they did was that bad, then they should not be allowed the sameprivileges that the other inmates have. Like to get an education, or to work inthe facility or anything that would be available to inmates of less seriouscrimes.
News Week says that a study found that about one in twenty-five peopleare innocent on death row or about 4.1%. About 1.6% of people to ever be ondeath row were exonerated, which could mean that people died for crimes theydid not commit. There is no way for sure to know how many people were innocentthat have died or to know how many people that are on death row currently andare awaiting execution are innocent. As of July, there were 2,817 death rowinmates. Cases, where the death penalty was wanted, can cost from two to fourtimes more than a case where the death penalty is not wanted.
That could costup to one million dollars more. Housing a death row inmate until they areexecuted can cost at least twice as much as general population inmates.California’s cost of the death penalty is 137 million dollars and for prisonersto be sentenced to life is 11.5 million dollars. To compare California toWashington with the cost per inmate in Washington is 46,897 with 17,050 inmatesin California their cost per inmate is 47,421 with 167,276 inmates. People maythink that it is less expensive to just execute someone, but it’s not. Thecosts of trials are at least doubled, it costs more to house a death row inmatethan one in general population, and some inmates on death row are innocent andno one knows how many people were executed for a crime they did not commit. Ifthey are not found innocent and exonerated, then they wait an average of 15years to be executed where a quarter of those people die of natural causes.
Itcosts more after all is said and one to put someone on death row than it is tosentence them life to prison. My last point I want to make is about how muchpower the president of the united states has. There is a debate that thepresident has too much power that is not stated in the constitution. Times havechanged since the constitution was written, our government has changed andgrown since then, our country has Tennancour Political Platform 2017 changed and grown so thepower that the president yields should also change and grow according to whatis happening in the world and in our country.
I believe that the president hasmore power than what is written in the constitution, but not too much to wherehe can control anything and everything. To limit the president’s powers thereare checks in place to stop any one branch of government from having too muchpower. The president has a lot of authority but only as much as Congressallows, the president cannot declare war for no reason, Congress has totechnically declare war. That does not stop the president from being able todeploy troops for protection while awaiting Congress’ decision since it is notwar. I think there is a misconception about how much the president actuallydoes.
I am sure he does a lot for our country, but most people would fearsomeone in high authority to become more like a dictator. He has control overour military and nuclear weapons, can sign or veto bills, appoint somegovernment officials, and is everyone’s boss. He does not have enough power totake over our country or be able to decide everything that can become a law orbill passed. Congress can veto the president’s veto, can approve the people whothe president wants to appoint to a job, and can impeach the president underthe right circumstances.
