Blog Post #1- (My first blog post)

Hey, I am a 12th-grade student at Everest Public High School in Redwood City. I grew up in Redwood City, California, and have always been eager to learn more about political movements and how it can impact people by uniting or separating them. This blog will be an area in which I can share my perspective on my political beliefs. Political ideology is related beliefs about political theory and policy held by an individual, a group of individuals or a social class. Liberals believe that you need the government to protect individuals from being harmed by others. However, they also believe that the government itself can be dangerous. Conservative ideology will have a small government and will also use money into national defense. They also believe that small states should have more power than federal and the government shouldn’t interfere in the economy. The types of things that can influence someone's ideology can be your culture, family, and where you live. My political typology is a disaffected democrat. This means that, in regards to the government, I believe that the economic system is unfair because they favor powerful interests and also business corporations make a lot of profit.  

Blog Post 5-(Elections)

Voting is a linkage institution because it’s the most common form of political participation. Adding on, you become connected to the government by voting. When elections are occurring it can influence an individual’s political belief by influencing them to have the same ideas which will end up supporting the person who is running for a position. The election I have decided to write about is the 2016 U.S Presidential Election. It came down to two candidates which were Donald Trump who is the Republican nominee, and Hillary Clinton who is the Dem

Donald Trump is the first candidate that I chose, and he is associated with the Republican party. Some of the issues that he cared about are immigration, sexual harassment, gun control, and the military. While Donald Trump was running for president he had many sexual offenses on women which ended up offending many women in the United States. The following artifact comes from the website Vox (Source) and it talks about the women that helped Donald Trump win. This is in favor of Donald Trump because although he has offended many women around the country were offended he still managed to get a decent percentage of women votes. It shows that they were the reason he won the election. Trump managed to get more white women (without college degrees) to vote for him which means his offenses didn’t impact them. I believe they still support him because they are from the same political party which is republican.

The following artifact comes from the website BBC (Source) and it’s about a video that was resurfaced about Donald Trump making unacceptable comments about women. It’s arguing that he should drop out of the election after this tape came out. It shows also that he has no respect for women even though he says he does. According to the website, “at least 10 Republican senators have either said they will not be voting for the Republican candidate in the general election in 30 days' time, or have called for him to stand aside.” Trump still continued to run for president even though this video was released and he says he only continues in order to not let down his supporters.

The second candidate I have chosen is Hillary Clinton and she is associated with the Democratic Party. The main issues that Hillary Clinton cares about are women’s rights, health care, and economic issues. Hillary Clinton has helped raise awareness and help women know their rights. Also, when it comes to economic problems she believes that people who are rich don’t pay their share.

The following artifact is from a website called National Public Radio (Source) where it shows why women support Hillary Clinton which makes it pro-candidate. The main argument of this article is about Clinton understanding the issues that women have nowadays.

This chart shows that more women support her than other people that were running. For example, Bernie Sanders another candidate who was also running didn’t have as much women supports. This article states, “But almost everyone at some point in the conversation, whether or not they were committed to voting for Clinton, mentioned they like her, because she understands "women's issues." This term — "women's issues" is vague and has a different definition depending on who's using it.” What they mean by understanding women issues is equality when it comes to jobs and the things they need to raise a family. This artifact relates to Ms. Hillary’s political stances on women’s because she wants to improve women's lives and have more gender equality.

The next artifact I have chosen is about Hillary Clinton’s email scandal and it is anti-candidate which was covered by BBC News (Source). This website specifically talks about her having only one email on one device. She only had personal emails which are not a government email. According to BBC News, it states, “According to Mrs. Clinton, the primary reason she set up her own email was for "convenience". During a press conference at the UN, she said that she preferred to carry only one smartphone with one email address, rather than have two devices - one for work and one for personal affairs.” Even though she says that it was for convenience many people found it out of the ordinary on why she didn’t have a government email. This whole scandal made her look bad when running as a candidate. This artifact relates to Hillary Clinton’s stances because she lost trust between her suporters which impacted her negatively. Due to this, the government has also been suspicious.

Blog Post 4-(Media)

Media is a linkage institution because it is a way to reach out to citizens and influence them on what side of politics they should be on. Public opinion plays a big role throughout linkage institutions. The more active the government is the more people have opinions, which will then make public opinion increase. The media mobilizes voter by running campaigns and advertisements. There are many specific news sources which cover up their side of the story. This is due to the fact that some news sources are liberal or conservative. My first news source is going to be CNN which falls into the liberal side in politics. My second news source is The Blaze which falls into the conservative side in politics. Most of CNN’s viewers are Liberal which means most of the news they cover up will attract them. When it comes to The Blaze the responses they give out will attract people that are conservatives because that the type of information they consistently give out. After looking at both sources the current issue that I am analyzing is about Donald Trump and Michelle Obama. Donald Trump is our current President in the United States. Michelle Obama is the wife of the previous president Barack Obama. This all started when Michelle Obama wrote a memoir, “Becoming” (Source) where she mentions Trump and he had a response. Michelle Obama is apart of the Democratic Party while Donald Trump is apart of the Republican Party. Both parties are rivals from each other which means they don’t usually agree. If a liberal news source would cover this story it would paint Michelle Obama in a positive way while making Donald Trump look bad. If a conservative author would cover this story it would paint Donald Trump in a positive way and make Michelle Obama look bad.

My first news source is an article that CNN wrote about is how Michelle Obama wrote a memoir and Trump responded back. In the memoir, “Becoming” (Source) there is a part within where she mentions Trump and refers to him as someone she would "never forgive" (Source) Trump. The word “never” has a negative connotation and it is making it seem that they will never make up. After reading this article I noticed that it is biased in one way by leaving out some of Donald Trump responses and not covering fully what Michelle Obama said. This article also included that Trump made lies about her husband Barack Obama which is, “The former first lady writes in her new memoir that she will never forgive Trump for his role in promoting the "birther" conspiracy theory that falsely claimed that her husband was not born in the United States”(Source). This source also leaves out some information compared to others sources. This means that they only cover up what their audience wants to hear. This article could be influenced by the context in which it was written because Trump is now president and was written in 2018. Due to CNN being liberal, it is likely that the author is going to portray Trump negatively. This article might influence their audience in a way to view Trump as an enemy.

The second news source that I chose is The Blaze perspective about Trump response to Michelle Obama (Source). The Blaze is a news source that considers themselves conservatives. This source wrote an article that goes more in-depth into Trump's response. What this means is there is much more detail in his response. Specifically, this article states, “And I came in and I had to fix it, and I’m in the process of spending tremendous amounts of money”(Source). This quote was missing when CNN wrote their side of the story which is really interesting to see. The Blaze covered it and manage to cover both responses. Although what Donald Trump said made it seem like he is a victim by having to spend large amounts of money and having to fix it himself because he became the president. Although the news source is conservative it also goes more in depth in what Michelle Obama says. “The whole thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed. But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks,” Michelle wrote. “What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls”(Source). I find this article convincing because of all the information of quotes that it has given us. Also, it seems that The Blaze covered this controversy better than CNN. This article could be influenced by the context in which it was written because the author is Christian Libertarian and was written in 2018. Those who read this article might influence their audience in a way to see both sides.

Blog Post 3- (Political Parties and Politicians)

Political Parties are groups of people that all have the same beliefs and views. These beliefs are usually related to the government. These Political Parties try to get people from their groups to get into positions of power. What I mean by positions of power is being the President, Senate, and other related positions. The way that political parties link the general public to the government is by using advertisements and running campaigns which show their ideology. Streaming them through social media or television is an example of where you might find these campaigns. The outcome by doing this will make it so people can go out and vote more.

The politician I chose to write about is Ted Cruz. This politician holds a spot in the Senators. Cruz is affiliated with the Republican Party and he represents the state of Texas. His main beliefs are, “He has also led the fight to defend life, marriage, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and our entire Bill of Rights”(Source). This shows what he stands for and what he likes to defend. Not only does he defend guns, but he also stands for the entire bill of rights.

There are many pieces of evidence where it shows his point of view on things. “He has worked to safeguard the Second Amendment right to bear arms during the Senate’s 2013 contentious debate over gun control;” (Source) It shows Ted Cruz’s point of view about gun control because he has defended it when it comes to debates. Also in a website where it shows Ted Cruz's stance on gun control (Source), and it tells us that he has been a lawyer for the National RifleA He is apart of the Republican party and not only does he defend it but the party itself also stands for the second amendment.

Blog Post 2- (Interest Groups)

An interest group is a collection of people with the same beliefs regarding a particular issue. These serve as linkage institutions because the issues end up going to the government. The two interest groups that I have chosen are the National Rifle Association and The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. The issue of gun control is related to these interests groups. Starting off, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) goal is to encourage the use of rifles. Not only that but their mission is to maintain and protect the right of all individuals to purchase, possess and use firearms which is backed up by the second amendment of the constitution. The NRA has also been really successful in the past years by making gun laws less strict. An example of this is because in some states you can carry a weapon or firearm without a permit. A big part of their success has been the fact that they have a lot of money. “Combined with the strong grassroots efforts of NRA members and NRA-affiliated state associations and local gun clubs, the Institute has worked vigorously to pass pro-gun reform legislation at the state level” (Source). This artifact represents the group and their mission because it shows their specific goals regarding gun control.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is the second interest group I have chosen. This groups mission is to have all Americans live in communities free from gun violence. They plan to reach this goal through, “strategic engagement, policy development, and effective advocacy”(Source). This interest group has helped pass a law to remove firearms from families in a crisis. “In recent years, we have worked with scientific experts to develop the Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO), a law that allows law enforcement and family members to temporarily remove firearms from a loved one in crisis.” This is used where they are unstable families and have issues. It is important for any firearm to be removed in order for it to be safe. This fits in with their mission because they are stopping people from abusing their guns which means they are stopping gun violence. The logo of The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence clearly represents their mission of stopping gun violence.

Not only does their logo represent their mission but when you go into their website you can see a photo. It is a picture of the constitution that says “We the people” (Source). The CSGV shows that they care about the constitution and want to protect it along with the second amendment.

These two interest groups clash with each other due to one side wanting to remove firearms from individuals while the other side wants individuals to be able to keep using firearms. A similarity between the NRA and CSGV is that they both deeply care about guns. What I mean by this, is that both devote themselves to protect gun rights or to restrict them. The CSGV logo differs from the quote I used for NRA because the NRA managed to pass a gun law while the CSGV name stands for the stop on gun violence. When the NRA passed the gun law it was to make it less strict. The logo of the CSGV specifically states, “THE COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE.” Also, we can see that the CSGV deeply cares about the constitution and even has a picture of it while the NRA doesn’t necessarily care as much. I would choose the NRA because, in my opinion, we should be able to have whatever guns we want.