Deconstructing Political Parties and Politicians in America

Political Parties and Politicians

In this post, I will cover two mostly unrelated topics: 1) the Democratic and Republican political parties and 2) a politician of my choice.

Political Parties

In order to compare and contrast the Democratic and Republican parties, I will analyze how they approach the same issue: tax code reforms (which are currently a work in progress).

I'll start with some background information about the Democratic party. According to the Democratic party, their beliefs include that, “we're [democrats are] greater together than we are on our own—that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules. Our party is focused on building an economy that lifts up all Americans, not just those at the top.”

The issues the party claims to focus on include: “Civil Rights”, “Education”, “Environment”, “Health Care”, “Immigration Reform”, “Jobs and the Economy”, “National Security”, “Retirement”, “Security”, “Science and Technology”, “Voting Rights”, and “Trump… [putting] Americans’ Health at Risk”

After visiting the Democratic party's website, I found this article about the tax reforms that President Trump is working on with a few other Republicans. Democrats claim that Trump's allegedly “secretive” tax reform plan is deceitful; they argue that it is not actually intended to benefit the middle class like Trump claims but rather, that it is a ploy to benefit the wealthy and big corporations.

The article included all of the details of the plan that were made public and they addressed Trump’s claims regarding the intentions of the plan and who it's good for. Trump claims to be making a miracle for the middle class however, many tax specialists claim that it will benefit wealthy business owners more than the middle class. In order for the Democratic argument to have more grounds, they should update it as more details of the plan are released. They are very suspicious of Trump’s intentions for the plan however, they cannot make a fully developed argument against that which has not been fully released. They contend that the plan is “secretive” and that it is being made “behind closed doors” to indicate that Trump is trying to hide his intentions. The Democratic point of view is exceptionally anti-Trump and against his proposed reform of the tax code. They hold that Trump is making the changes to benefit himself and other wealthy business owners and that he is deceiving the American people. The Democrats, if they convince their audience of their argument, could turn anyone in favor of Trump’s plan, against it. The website was paid for by the Democratic Party and naturally, it discredits Trump. The article gave me the sense that the Democratic party has the people’s best interest.

Now I'll move on to the Republican party (the GOP). According to the Republican party, their mission and beliefs include that our: “country is exceptional”, “Constitution should be honored, valued, and upheld”, “Leaders should serve people, not special interests”, “Families and communities should be strong and free from government intrusion”, “Institution of traditional marriage is the foundation of society”, “Government should be smaller, smarter and more efficient”, “Health care decisions should be made by us and our doctors”, “Paychecks should not be wasted on poorly run government programs”, “Military must be strong and prepared to defend our shores”, “Culture should respect and protect life”, “Children should never be left in failing schools”, “Veterans should have the best care and opportunities in the world”, “Social programs should help lift people out of poverty”, and that “America should be energy independent”.

The issues the GOP claims to focus on include: “Budget and Spending”, “Economy”, “Education Reform”, “Elections”, “Energy and Environment”, “Family Values”, “Foreign Relations”, “Government Accountability”, “Health Care”, “Higher Education”, “Homeland Security”, “Immigration”, “Liberty”, “National Defense”, “Veterans”, and “White House”.

Now that background information about the GOP has been shared, I will delve into their stance on the tax reforms being made. I visited the GOP's website and found this article about the tax reforms. Needless to say, Donald J. Trump is a Republican president. He could be considered the leader of the GOP; although many members of the GOP do not agree with Trump on many issues, he, as the president, ultimately dictates the direction of the party by making decisions for it. This makes Trump representative of the GOP. Trump intends to make the “middle class miracle” a reality again by reforming tax code. Specifically, the he claims that he will simplify the tax code and create tax cuts for the middle class. The President said “We will double the standard deduction, which means the first $24,000 of a family’s income will be tax-free. We will also expand the child tax credit. And we will lower rates so that families will keep more of their hard-earned money.”

In this article, Trump has failed to address the fact that democrats have made feasible arguments that delegitimize his tax reform plan. If he really wants to convince middle-class Americans that the tax reform will benefit them, he should include information that provides a rebuttal to the Democratic stance on the issue. Trump glamorizes his tax reform plan by making it appealing to the middle class. He says that his plan will be a “middle-class miracle”, that it will be more “simple”, that it will help Americans “families… keep more of their hard-earned money.” He says that “the sun is rising once again over America” as if to suggest that his tax reform is the light and that the current tax code has cast darkness over the middle class. Trump tries to make his point of view appear that he is pro-America and pro-middle-class however, he seems somewhat deceitful. If the Democrats are in fact correct about his ulterior motives, he would stand to gain from the change in tax code as he is a wealthy business owner; this gives him a dangerous bias. The website is paid for by the GOP and the article itself is actually excerpted from USA today, which does not have a reputation for having a left or right winged political bias.

Both articles were similar in that they both carried a strong opinion on the same issue, however, they were different in their opinions. The GOP article was made as if to excite Trump supporters about his upcoming work whereas, the Democratic article was made as if to warn people about Trump's upcoming work. I would say that the GOP article was very limited in that it did not respond to alternate claims whereas the Democratic article was basically about refuting Trump's claim that the tax reforms will benefit the middle class. The GOP included words and metaphors that glamorize Trump's plan whereas, the Democratic article included words that suggest Trump is being very secretive about his plan, as if to conceal an ulterior motive.

A Politician

I decided to learn about the governor of California: Jerry Brown. I took the following information from the about section of Jerry Brown’s official website. Jerry Brown is a member of the Democratic party. Brown is the current governor of California and he was born in San Francisco, in 1938. He attended undergraduate school at UC Berkeley and went on to get a law degree at Yale. Brown was the governor of California before, having been elected in 1974 and 1978. According to his site, he has been able “to slow the growth of state government, eliminate capital gains taxes for many small businesses, abolish the business inventory tax, index personal income taxes, adopt the nation's first energy efficiency standards, and make California the leader in co-generation, solar and wind energy.” He has reportedly also been able to protect the environment and fight crime. He once ran for president (in 1992) and lost. There was nothing in Brown's about section that was critical of his work as governor.

To learn more about Brown and what he supports, I took a look at a June 2016 letter from him to all California Democrats and Independents. In this letter, he encourages voters to support Hillary Clinton because she is the “only” way to vote a democrat in office and ensure that Trump’s “dangerous candidacy” does not get him elected president. He goes on to briefly criticize Trump on topics including the environment, immigration, nuclear weapons, and the supreme court.

Brown’s point of view is not as much pro-Hillary as it is anti-Trump. He clearly believes that it would be very dangerous for Trump to become president; he puts particular emphasis on how Trump threatens the environments and peace from nuclear warfare. He also concludes by arguing that Hillary is qualified to be the president, in case anyone thought his support of her was purely based on his desire to keep Trump out of office. In my opinion, a large part of what formed Brown's point of view was him growing up in Democratic California; I would imagine that such a cultural experience, including him going to the famously liberal UC Berkeley, made him into the democratic he is today.

Conclusion

Conducting this exploration has helped me to realize the extend to which political parties and politicians influence people's political views. It is my understanding that those in the Democratic party and those in the Republican party have increasingly become intolerant of the other group. I saw this political polarization in the article I read from the Democratic party however, I did not really see the Republican article address the Democratic party. In any case, I thought that the Democratic party's article had strong evidence whereas the Republican party's article had relatively weak evidence; therefore, when it comes to tax reform, I am against the GOP and stand with the Democratic party. What convinces me to side with one party as opposed to the other for a given issue is the amount and validity of evidence provided. Political parties can persuade people's political opinions when they have the best evidence for their argument.

I noticed that politicians often support other political candidates on a basis of not only who has the closest beliefs, but who is most likely to win. A given politician can help to shape other's political opinions by showing which other politicians support them.

As of now, I would say that I lean more democratic than republican however, I would never side with a party because I happen to agree with them on other issues.