Blog #5

Welcome back to my blog, today we are going to talk about the elections and how candidates use evidence to communicate their point of view.

Voting is a linkage institution because it connects the citizens with the government by encouraging them to participate in the selection of governmental officials. Voters are usually influenced by factors such as political party identification, specific candidates and key issues. The election I chose to write about is Brian Kemp vs. Stacey Abrams. These two candidates are running for governor in the state of Georgia.

Candidate #1
(https://www.kempforgovernor.com/index.php)

The first candidate I will be talking about is Brian Kemp, who is affiliated with the Republican Party.

Some of the main issues this candidate cares about are immigration, specifically criminal aliens as he calls them, and lessen the regulations for small businesses. For the immigration issue, Kemp plans to track and deport "criminal aliens" from jails and prisons. He believes that  "deporting criminal aliens from the Peach State will certainly impact the opioid epidemic, curb sex trafficking, lower crime rates, and protect families from violence, we must stop gang violence and dismantle gang infrastructure to ensure a bright and promising future for hardworking Georgians." Regarding the business regulations, he believes that people should be spending more time working on their businesses than dealing with the government, and that is why regulations should be cut. Additionally, he opposes more gun control in the state of Georgia because he claims that no one can take away his rights.

In this video from Kemp's campaign, he does not argue anything specifically. Instead, he portrays his opponent, Stacey Abrams in a negative way by implying that her views on the same issues are incorrect. However, this article relates to Kemp's point of view as it shows that he, in fact, opposes immigration, gun control and the development of social programs as they raise taxes.


Candidate #2
(https://staceyabrams.com/)

The second candidate I will be talking about is Stacey Abrams, who is affiliated with the Democratic Party. Some of the main issues she cares about are affordable housing, gun safety, and equal rights. She believes that essential to ensure that every family has the freedom and opportunity to thrive and therefore, she wants to find solutions for housing. Regarding gun safety, she thinks that it is time for sensible gun policies that enable responsible ownership and keep firearms away from people who use them to harm other people. Finally, she believes everyone should have the same right no matter their sexual orientation and/ or immigration status in the country. She strongly opposes legislation that demonizes immigrant communities.

This is video from Abrams' campaign. This video pretty much argues about the issues that she cares about and how they need to be fixed. This video relates to her point of view on the issues as she is basically just expressing how she feels about certain issues, it shows her stances on the issues I previously mentioned and some other issues.

Now we are going to focus on two specific issues and compare and contrast how their differences are meaningful.

The first issue we are going to discuss is immigration. Stacey Abrams sees immigration and immigrants in a good way. She does not want to kick out immigrant communities, in fact, she believes immigrants should have the same the rights as everyone. She also believes that families should not be separated on the border. One of the reasons why she holds these beliefs is that she belongs to the Democratic Party, which is liberal. Liberals usually support immigration and promote equality.

On the other hand, Brian Kemp strongly opposes immigration and he believes that they are responsible for most of the issues that Georgia faces. He wants to track and deport undocumented people and believes that this would be the solution to significant issues.  One of the reasons that influence Kemp's stance on this issue is that he Represents the Republican Party, which lies to the conservative side. Conservatives usually oppose immigration. Although there is not a specific reason as to why they oppose it, part of it could be that conservatives do not like change, which is what immigration is doing as it changes the population.


The second issue we are going to discuss is gun control. Stacey Abrams does not oppose the second amendment; however, she believes that there should be certain regulations that prevent people from getting harmed. She believes that it is essential for people to feel safe and that the current state of gun control is not providing security to the people. The fact the Abrahams is a Liberal, influences the stance she has on this issue as Liberals believe that there is a need for laws that make it harder for people to own guns just so the risk of mass shootings.


However, Brian Kemp strongly opposes gun control because he believes it is a right that cannot be changed as it is in the constitution. He thinks that by having guns, security can improve because people can defend themselves than wait for the police to come.  This is a common ideology that Conservatives have, they value guns because most of the conservatives who support guns, grew up around guns, either by practicing hunting or other activity that involves the use of firearms. The opinion Kemp has regarding guns connects to his campaign because in multiple campaign videos he talks about how he will oppose any regulations that affect the second amendment.