Political Parties whoooo
No time for a non-basic intro. I got hella work to do, so let's just go.
In the previous blog post, I talked about interest groups and their role as a type of linkage institution. In this post, I will be going deeper into the topic by exploring another type of linkage institution: political parties. While linkage institutions focus heavily on one topic, political parties encompass a wider array of beliefs. This allows the general public to connect themselves to politics because it offers them a chance to affiliate themselves with like-minded individuals. (And it's great because now we can get mad about the same stuff together. Hooray.)
The political party that I will be writing about in this blog post will be one that reflects my beliefs most accurately: the Constitution Party.
I'm kidding. Let's talk about Democrats.
If you look at the Democratic Party's "Our Party" page, you'll see that they emphasize the importance of equality through "job creation, equal pay, education, health care, and clean energy." Of course, this differs greatly from the beliefs of the Constitution Party and the Republican Party. The Constitution Party believes in a government that only sticks to its enumerated rights, meaning they support less government interference in issues such as education, health care, and basically a bunch of stuff that Democrats want to get all up in. (That sounded really weird... I'm keeping it.) Republican's views also differ greatly from Democratic views. Although they aren't as conservative as the Constitution Party, they still differ greatly on issues like gay marriage, abortion gun control, etc.
After looking at the Democratic platform, I decided to look more into their position on LGBT rights. (I know that it's the same thing that I talked about in my last blog post but let me live it's midnight and I'm typing this on a dying computer what do you want from me?) What I found was pretty much expected. The whole page talked about how Democrats will continue to support the LGBT community and accompanied that claim with this little video. Watch it. Or not. I don't care. I almost didn't watch it, so who am I to tell you what to do?
Okay you probably didn't watch the video because you couldn't spare a minute and 37 seconds of your life, but okay. Basically, the video was just reiterating what the page already said. It further establishes the Democratic party as an LGBT-friendly organization, and encourages its viewers to accept and celebrate the identities of those around them. Plus, they got clips of people smiling and hugging and some soft piano music in the background. Boom. Emotional appeal. They made you feel sympathetic towards the LGBT community and now you have to accept them.
As for the politician, I decided to write about Jackie Speier, a House of Representatives member for the state of California. Honestly, I didn't know she existed before this activity. I just wanted to study a California politician since they have more impact on my life than, say, a senator in Maryland. (Sometimes I forget that Maryland is a thing that exists which kinda goes to show how little influence that state has on my personal life. Or it shows that I'm just a really forgetful person who doesn't understand her own surroundings. Hmm.)
ANYWAY. Jackie Speier is a Democrat who aims to make student loans more affordable, prevent discrimination of transgender soldiers, ban gay conversion therapy, put an end to gun violence etc. Another thing that she's really big on is ending sexual violence. In her biography page, one of the first things that she discusses is her "reforms to end the epidemic of sexual assault in the military and on college campuses" for women.
She continues this belief (potentially extending it to other genders?) in one of her latest videos on her YouTube channel.
The video, titled "Rep Speier launches #MeTooCongress", focuses on revealing the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace. She starts off the video by talking about her experience being sexually assaulted as a congress staff member. She then tells her viewers that, because of this experience, she is able to relate to other victims and assures them that harassment is never the victim’s fault. Instead, she encourages victims, specifically those in congress, to come out about the truth in order to put an end to sexual harassment.
This artifact (like most things political) is biased because its purpose is not to objectively inform its audience. Instead, it is presenting a strong opinion about ending harassment without addressing opposing statistics or arguments.
In fact, she doesn't use any statistics to back up her point of view, either. The only evidence that she provides is her personal experience. I'm not saying that this invalidates her argument though. Not everything needs to include a list of facts to be considered legitimate, and sometimes, personal stories on their own are really powerful since they stir up really emotional responses. It seems that Speier is aware of this as well since she continues this pathos appeal throughout the video, specifically through word choice.
For example, when Speier talks about sexual assault, she uses words such as "anger", "repulsive", and "hostile." These words depict sexual assault as an incredibly serious and dangerous issue and push the viewers to oppose it as much as she does. On the contrary, when she discusses her approach to ending sexual violence, she uses words like "together" and "justice." The connotation in these worlds is certainly a lot more positive. Because of this, Speier's position on sexual assault is shown as righteous and inclusive, sending the clear message that her belief is the correct one.
So yeah. All I got for now.
See you in the next post.
(Mr. Dalton sent me and Krysten this gif during AP Gov Flex Time™. I don't know how it fit into the context at the time, but I like it.)
In the previous blog post, I talked about interest groups and their role as a type of linkage institution. In this post, I will be going deeper into the topic by exploring another type of linkage institution: political parties. While linkage institutions focus heavily on one topic, political parties encompass a wider array of beliefs. This allows the general public to connect themselves to politics because it offers them a chance to affiliate themselves with like-minded individuals. (And it's great because now we can get mad about the same stuff together. Hooray.)
The political party that I will be writing about in this blog post will be one that reflects my beliefs most accurately: the Constitution Party.
I'm kidding. Let's talk about Democrats.
If you look at the Democratic Party's "Our Party" page, you'll see that they emphasize the importance of equality through "job creation, equal pay, education, health care, and clean energy." Of course, this differs greatly from the beliefs of the Constitution Party and the Republican Party. The Constitution Party believes in a government that only sticks to its enumerated rights, meaning they support less government interference in issues such as education, health care, and basically a bunch of stuff that Democrats want to get all up in. (That sounded really weird... I'm keeping it.) Republican's views also differ greatly from Democratic views. Although they aren't as conservative as the Constitution Party, they still differ greatly on issues like gay marriage, abortion gun control, etc.
After looking at the Democratic platform, I decided to look more into their position on LGBT rights. (I know that it's the same thing that I talked about in my last blog post but let me live it's midnight and I'm typing this on a dying computer what do you want from me?) What I found was pretty much expected. The whole page talked about how Democrats will continue to support the LGBT community and accompanied that claim with this little video. Watch it. Or not. I don't care. I almost didn't watch it, so who am I to tell you what to do?
Okay you probably didn't watch the video because you couldn't spare a minute and 37 seconds of your life, but okay. Basically, the video was just reiterating what the page already said. It further establishes the Democratic party as an LGBT-friendly organization, and encourages its viewers to accept and celebrate the identities of those around them. Plus, they got clips of people smiling and hugging and some soft piano music in the background. Boom. Emotional appeal. They made you feel sympathetic towards the LGBT community and now you have to accept them.
As for the politician, I decided to write about Jackie Speier, a House of Representatives member for the state of California. Honestly, I didn't know she existed before this activity. I just wanted to study a California politician since they have more impact on my life than, say, a senator in Maryland. (Sometimes I forget that Maryland is a thing that exists which kinda goes to show how little influence that state has on my personal life. Or it shows that I'm just a really forgetful person who doesn't understand her own surroundings. Hmm.)
ANYWAY. Jackie Speier is a Democrat who aims to make student loans more affordable, prevent discrimination of transgender soldiers, ban gay conversion therapy, put an end to gun violence etc. Another thing that she's really big on is ending sexual violence. In her biography page, one of the first things that she discusses is her "reforms to end the epidemic of sexual assault in the military and on college campuses" for women.
She continues this belief (potentially extending it to other genders?) in one of her latest videos on her YouTube channel.
The video, titled "Rep Speier launches #MeTooCongress", focuses on revealing the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace. She starts off the video by talking about her experience being sexually assaulted as a congress staff member. She then tells her viewers that, because of this experience, she is able to relate to other victims and assures them that harassment is never the victim’s fault. Instead, she encourages victims, specifically those in congress, to come out about the truth in order to put an end to sexual harassment.
This artifact (like most things political) is biased because its purpose is not to objectively inform its audience. Instead, it is presenting a strong opinion about ending harassment without addressing opposing statistics or arguments.
In fact, she doesn't use any statistics to back up her point of view, either. The only evidence that she provides is her personal experience. I'm not saying that this invalidates her argument though. Not everything needs to include a list of facts to be considered legitimate, and sometimes, personal stories on their own are really powerful since they stir up really emotional responses. It seems that Speier is aware of this as well since she continues this pathos appeal throughout the video, specifically through word choice.
For example, when Speier talks about sexual assault, she uses words such as "anger", "repulsive", and "hostile." These words depict sexual assault as an incredibly serious and dangerous issue and push the viewers to oppose it as much as she does. On the contrary, when she discusses her approach to ending sexual violence, she uses words like "together" and "justice." The connotation in these worlds is certainly a lot more positive. Because of this, Speier's position on sexual assault is shown as righteous and inclusive, sending the clear message that her belief is the correct one.
So yeah. All I got for now.
See you in the next post.
(Mr. Dalton sent me and Krysten this gif during AP Gov Flex Time™. I don't know how it fit into the context at the time, but I like it.)
I think you made an important distinction in saying that one can give an convincing speech with only pathos and anecdotes and still be very deliberate in how they speak (despite not having facts). Being deliberate is very persuasive.
ReplyDeletegreat detail good job
ReplyDeleteGood use of multimedia, interesting title
ReplyDeleteloved the way you analysed the Democratic Party's video. "Plus, they got clips of people smiling and hugging and some soft piano music in the background. Boom. Emotional appeal." I should try doing it like that.
ReplyDeleteI love how you put the videos in your blog so that a reader knows what you are talking about and what video(s) you are referring to.
ReplyDelete