Political Party Paper

Political Parties
         There are two main parties in the United States: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. There are also many minor parties, including ideological, single-issue, economic, and splinter parties. The parties can do many things for the country but at what point are the parties doing things that are collectively bad for the country? For today, I will be focusing on the Democratic and Republican parties and their opinions on the LGBTQ community, Free and Universal Healthcare, and Education. As you know the Democratic party and the Republican party usually have very different opinions on the same things.
         On Monday, July 15, 2024, high-profile speakers at the Republican National Convention leaned into the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Some of these speakers were Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Michigan Representative John James, and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. All this said very hateful rhetoric that makes the LGBTQ community feel unseen and unheard. “Let me state this clearly: There are only two genders,” said Greene, John James stated, “Our daughters were sold on hope, and now they’re being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms of biological males”, Senator Johnson claims, “This fringe agenda includes biological males competing against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children.” As you can tell by these quotes these Republicans that are supposed to serve and protect everyone in the country and spewing hateful things about the people they are supposed to protect. In 2010 it is estimated that there were 1,470 hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation bias, 2015 19.4% of hate crimes were based on sexual orientation and gender identity bias. In 2020 it is reported that 1,376 hate crimes were based on sexual orientation and gender identity. As you can see every five years so far the number of hate crimes against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity go up. In recent years anti-LGBTQ legislation has only increased, last year there were at least 70 anti-LGBTQ laws, some of which included attacking gender-affirming care and school sports. “We will keep men out of women’s sports, ban Taxpayer funding for sex-changing surgeries, and stop Taxpayer-funded Schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX Education Regulations, and restore protections for women and girls.” North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson stated on X in 2021 that “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality – any of that filth.” Overall the Republican party is extremely opposed to the LGBTQ community having rights, much less existing. Based on what various Republican politicians have said you can easily tell that the Republican party is against the LGBTQ community.
         Most Republican politicians oppose the Affordable Care Act enacted on March 23, 2010. President Obama signed it into law, establishing comprehensive health insurance reforms that will roll out over four years and beyond. On his first day in office, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order intended to reverse ACA implementation. While he was president, he cut funding for enrollment assistance and allowed insurers to offer plans that would not meet the law’s original requirements. The Trump Administration also allowed the states to cap Medicaid spending, which allowed the administration to reduce benefits for people who had gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Over the time of his presidency, the number of uninsured Americans under the age of 65 had increased. Nikki Haley, a former Governor of South Carolina, believes it is intolerable for the United States to have some of the most expensive healthcare in the world. “When I am president, we will break all of it”. Haley claims that she wants to make insurance companies, doctors’ offices, P.B.M.s, and pharmaceutical companies transparent. Whether or not she will do that is unknown. Haley argues that it is wrong for insurers hospitals or doctors to negotiate prices without patient involvement. If you did not know going to get medical care in the United States is unreasonably expensive. In Montana, the average cost of hospital expenses for 1 day is $2,244 and the average cost in the United States is $2,883. The cost of having a procedure to get kidney stones out is over $28,000. Hospitals sometimes also put extra charges on your hospital bill meaning that you have to go through your bill for what you charged of, to see if the hospital charged you for something that you did not use or for something that you did not have done.
         The Republican Party wants to restructure higher education to allow more students to be more equipped for their desired jobs and “less working minimum wage jobs that are irrelevant to their education.” The party also wants to limit the federal government in education, this would include getting rid of federal student loans. Republicans also believe that there should be school choice and homeschooling programs and that the educational system should provide higher education to the students who have the achievements and abilities that will allow them to succeed in higher education and life outside of school. “Republicans also support initiatives that increase benefits to students who are taking more difficult courses, form partnerships with colleges and universities to improve science and math programs, and attract math, science, and engineering students to attend lower-income schools. Republicans support abstinence education when it comes to sex education, believing this is the only sure way of preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. They believe all family planning education programs should be replaced with abstinence programs.” As you can tell the Republican Party wants to make it seem like they care about students’ education, but if you take away federal student loans, some students such as those who rely on federal aid would not be able to pursue higher education.
         The Democratic party has very distinct opinions on the LGBTQIA+ community. The Democratic party has been very supportive of LGBTQIA+ rights and the community. The party has been fighting for the community to maintain basic human rights. “Democrats applaud the decision by the Supreme Court that recognized that LGBT people – like other Americans – have the right to marry the person they love.” Although the Democratic party has been nonstop fighting for the entire community, including LGBT children are still continually getting bullied in so many places, and couples of the same sex are constantly at risk of being evicted from their homes, whether those homes are apartments, houses, or rentals. “That is unacceptable and must change.” The Democratic party is standing with the community and is committed to ending violence against the community, bullying, and discrimination, and is also working to ensure that LGBT Americans are treated with respect and dignity in the places they live.
         The Democratic Party is fighting to achieve and provide universal healthcare and the Democratic Party has made it so that women can not get charged more than men because of their gender. “We are proud to be the party of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, from heart disease to asthma, are secure in the knowledge that insurance companies can no longer discriminate against them.” In America every person big or small wants to be able to feel good and have the proper care to make them feel the best, everyone wants to be able to have medical care without becoming bankrupt or going into extreme debt. About 14 million people or 6% of adults are in over $1,000 in medical debt and about 3 million or 1% of adults owe over $10,000 in debt, over 41% of American adults have some varying degrees of medical debt that they owe. “Unfortunately, at every turn, Democrats’ efforts to guarantee health coverage have been met by obstruction and opposition from the Republican Party. It has been Republicans who have embraced junk plans that undermine protections for pre-existing conditions.” The Democrats believe that the Republican party has been trying to deny access to healthcare to Americans of different races and Americans who do not earn much money. “And in the midst of the worst global pandemic in generations – one that has left more than 150,000 Americans dead and counting – the Trump Administration is fighting in court to invalidate the entirety of the Affordable Care Act and eliminate insurance for tens of millions of people.” The Democratic Party believes that every person deserves to live a long and healthy life, with affordable healthcare. “Overturning the Affordable Care Act remains a central plank of the Republican Party platform. The difference in values between the two parties on this life-or-death issue could not be more stark.
         Education is an important part of American culture. “Democrats know that every child, no matter who they are, how much their families earn, or where they live, should have access to a high-quality education, from preschool through high school and beyond.” Education allows the children of America to learn about the world from the perspective of the United States. Even though most children attend high school through their senior year, the United States is ranked 12th in education as of the 2024 Competitiveness Report. Even though this rank is fairly high, it is not the best. Since 1944 when President Franklin Roosevelt enacted G.I. Bill the democratic party has been working to better the education system in the United States. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law student loan reform. “As Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos attempt to roll back the progress we’ve made on education by stripping protections for students and student loan borrowers, we’ll keep fighting to elect Democrats who will advocate for education.” Every child, no matter where they live, how much money they have, or how little financial support they have, every child deserves to be able to go to primary and secondary school and college. As the prices of everything go up Democrats are working to make the cost of school go down. “Democrats recognize education as the most pressing issue in America’s future, and we cannot allow our country to fall behind in a global economy. We must prepare the next generation for success in college and the workforce.”
         In conclusion, both parties from what my research has told me lie about the other party and try to make themselves look good. I do not trust either one of the parties and would prefer to ignore them until someone who shares my beliefs runs for office, until then I could honestly care less about the parties because they are not trustworthy enough for me to put in a vote for one or the other. In my opinion, both parties' candidates do not have common sense and a general sense of morality. I think this because if they had a good morality then they would realize that the LGBTQ community is still at their core basic humans like you and me, universal healthcare would be good for all the world because then fewer people would die a year, and having free education and an education system that taught students how to be successful in the real world would be good for us as a country.

References
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