Dianne Feinstein, a U.S. Senator From California - Essay Example

Dianne Feinstein: U.S. Senator from California Dianne Feinstein: U.S. Senator from California Introduction The United States of America has always shown examples to the world politics by promoting and honoring women leadership. There have been many names of females that are profoundly listed in the country’s administrative almanac for their selfless services and dedicated self-application to the field of politics. Hence, the world of art and literature has abundant material to showcase the magnificence of such personalities as references of their incredible achievements. This paper is an overview of the life and political career of Dianne Feinstein. It will also discuss the Feinstein perspective of Government Surveillance of US Citizens and Federal Assault Weapons’ Ban in a political background. The Person Born in June, 1933 in San Francisco, the Senior Senator from California is the oldest female member of the American Parliament. Dianne Feinstein entitles the most sincere appreciation for her excellence at the various positions she occupied in the political structure of both California and the United States. From the religious perspective, she had a Jewish model of belief; but in course of time, she turned a perfect democrat and embraced the principle of secularism by finally giving up her love for Judaism. As described in biography, Feinstein’s career history starts with her entry as a member to California Women’s Board of Terms and Parole in 1960 (Dianne Feinstein). She was then promoted to the team of San Francisco Board of Supervisors where she completed her tenure from 1970 to 1978 elected mayor of San Francisco in 1978. Feinstein was elected Mayor of San Francisco in 1978 and continued mayoralty for the consecutive two tenures till 1988. In 1988 and 1989, she worked as the Director of Bank of California. After that, in 1992 she became the Senator from California and remains in the same position. Feinstein has been considered in the political circle of America as the wholesome voice of aspects like policy advice and executive decision making. The strong personality of Feinstein was a seasoned blend of experiences in working with both her own Democratic party and the Republicans. Senator Feinstein has a stunning voting record that she accumulated from her career span of two decades. As per her voting records (Dianne Feinsteins Voting Records), Feinstein started her successful and record-setting run in the Senate voting with the Strike Replacement on January 1993 and still continues to impose her voice with the recent bill of Continuing Appropriations Resolution for 2015 on September 18, 2014. Feinstein was elected to the Senate in 1992, and ever since, she has been a brilliant visionary and a perfect achiever of several legislative changes. Senator Feinstein’s legislative achievements can be listed out for a better understanding of the high determination she posed throughout her career. Banning assault weapons, inducting more crimes eligible for death penalty, ‘gun-free schools’ amendment in 1994, defense downsizing for business growth for small and medium units, the Budget Reconciliation Bill of 1993 for rejuvenating the California economy, the Illegal Immigration Control and Enforcement Act of 1994 etc are a few of her achievements (Senator Dianne Feinstein). Dianne Feinstein is currently the Chairperson for U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – a government body that heads the surveillance operations of criminal intelligence for the constitutional security of American citizens. A Critical View of Government Surveillance of U.S. Citizens There has been ample of evidences of increasing security breaches and related violence both from the home situations and international terrorism in the recent two decades in America. With the faster development of technology, communication devices became more feasible tool for antisocial elements to operate. That is the reason why the government constituted a policy of close surveillance of citizens across their electronic communication. However, there is a wide range criticism that the home security policy of the country to examine the safety levels by intercepting the individual privacy of the American nationals is crossing all limits of personal dignity. For a vast majority of the citizens, the collective action of U.S. intelligence agencies to detect and prevent security threats is an encroachment to their right to life. The end result of the scenario is something like a perceived belief of the people that, “they (the NSA authorities) seem to believe that they have the right to look through our electronic communication any time they want and that we should not complain about it” (Snyder, June 8, 2013). Even within the government circuit, there is harsh criticism against the methodology of certain investigation agencies. As the Chairperson of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Feinstein has voiced strongly against the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) for its allegedly brutal modus operandi and the deliberate breach of constitutional doctrines. As reported by Miller and Goldman (March 11, 2014), the political critics think that the ongoing tug-of-war between CIA and Intelligence Committee headquarters is an outbound show down of strategic fights to show the supremacy of each other, and as a result, the former is bound to face wider criticism at Senate level. The bitterness between the agency head Brennan and Feinstein even went open altercations over the process of handling the investigative offices. However, the common basis of arguing that a government surveillance system is essential is emphasized by the fear posed by the 9/11 attack. Not only did it force the government to amend immigration provisions, but also went a long way in framing out legislations for individualized watch of citizens to eliminate possible threats in future. Heading the Committee that is meant for a reason, Feinstein always maintained convincing appeal to the nationals and assured them constitutional grant of personal liberty. Although the legislation was enforced after thorough evaluation of the outputs, the matter was not invited for a public debate for approval as in most bills before. The rapid legislation of USA Patriot Act that recommended citizen surveillance provisions may have created confusion among the Senators and the public equally due to insufficient information on the topic. However, the common conception about the electronic laws is incorrect as it has not made many changes to the already existing Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986. According to the observation of Cook, Molliconi & Cole (1995), the Patriot Act can no longer be dumped as Big Brother legislation as it makes an overall offering for the citizens in the field of extended civil liberties than those provided by the Electronic Communication Privacy Act. the basis of the overall findings, it can be argued that the existence of government surveillance is beneficial for the people of the country if there are guaranteed provisions to secure the privacy and dignity of each citizen. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban: The United State has been a place for abundant civilian liberty and freedom of consumer choices. This is so because the government expects each American national to own the intelligence to distinguish between rights and responsibilities in the socially oriented life. In the light of increasing tendency of violence among the youth and students, the bill of Federal Assault Weapons Ban was proposed by the California Senator Feinstein and was legislated by then President Clinton in 1994. However, after a decade’s regime, the Ban was lifted for technical reasons in 2004. Since then, the country has been witnessing gruesome assaults and massacres in schools and colleges. In this context, the issue of legalization of weapons, especially firearms or their ban comes under debates. Although the induction of the ban created a commercial bifurcation in the gun market as primary (which was authorized) and secondary (illegal supply), the effect of the legislation could control fatal assaults to a great extent. This is observed that the stringent provisions of the law made the transfer of firearms under thorough legal processing and more than a half of the states including North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York etc implemented the provision to regulate the arm deals complying with the Federal Ban. A thorough scrutiny of the effect of assault weapons provision in the home security and crime control highlight the 1994 Ban as great congressional act of the USA. While authoring the bill to amend laws for gun control, Feinstein had vivid literature to discuss the issue and argue for the relevance of supply-demand proportion with relates to the ratios of firearm sales to gun murders. Keeping faith in the progression of the earlier success of the law as referred by her, Feinstein calls for a second time ban on deadly assault weapons in order to avoid such lethal incidents as in Newtown. In the American context of business and politics, a complete prohibition of guns is not possible because of the multi-faceted consequences such a policy can develop. It is also important for the leadership to safeguard the interests of the investors of firearm industry. However, from the light of the shooting incidents and mass-killings during the last ten years, the concern of Senator Feinstein about the availability of assault weapons receives great attention. It may also be noticed that the guns used in the crimes were once subject to the Federal Ban. In this context, it may be seen that a reduction in the manufacturing and distribution of assault weapons other than for the military and law enforcement can only bring changes to the existing scenario. Moreover, if the government intends to bring down the number of crimes and prevent violence, it must be seen that the policies are corresponding to the required outcome. References Cook, P. J., Molliconi, S., & Cole, T. B. (1995). Regulating gun markets. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 86 (1), 59. Dianne Feinsteins Voting Records. Vote Smart. Retrieved from http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/53273/dianne-feinstein/?p=1#.VCX8pWeSw8o Dianne Feinstein. Ballotpedia. Retrieved from http://ballotpedia.org/Dianne_Feinstein Snyder, M. (June 8, 2013). Government Surveillance Of American Citizens Goes Far Beyond What You Are Being Told. Prison Planet. Retrieved from http://www.prisonplanet.com/government-surveillance-of-american-citizens-goes-far-beyond-what-you-are-being-told.html Senator Dianne Feinstein. Retrieved from http://www.calvoter.org/archive/94general/cand/senate/fein/bio.html The Washington Post. (March 11, 2014). Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/feinstein-cia-searched-intelligence-committee-computers/2014/03/11/982cbc2c-a923-11e3-8599-ce7295b6851c_story.html Read More