The Needs of the Constituents - Essay Example

December 22, Politics Introduction Politics entails serving the needs of the constituents. The paper delves on the political environment of New York State. The paper focuses on several issues. Political leaders strive to fill the social, health, and other needs of the state. My profile Presently, several political leaders represent me and my other constituents in my 13th District New York City community. The political leaders are classified as local leaders and non-local leaders. The non-local leaders include the person representing my 13th District in the United States Senate. Another non-local political leader who represents my district is one who sits in the United States congress. Further, the local leaders specifically serve the local residents. I am currently eligible to vote for the elective officers of my 13th District. My district is strategically located in N.Y. City. Likewise, I am currently a full pledged registered voter of my very populous New York City 13th district. My district is classified as the congressional district. Consequently, the residents vote for the person who is the best qualified to represent us in the United States House of Representatives. As far as the political party is concerned, I have registered under the political party that espouses my political and social aspirations, the Democratic political party. Our current United States President is Democrat B. Obama. In terms of union membership, I am presently not a member of any union. Since I am not a member of any union, it logically follows that I am not an active member of any union group. In terms of the voting experience, I did not vote in any of the prior elections in my 13th district. However, I am very excited to vote for the first time in the next elections. Further, my city’s 13th district has a unique postal address My city’s postal zip code is 10040. My district includes the Upper portion of Manhattan. My district includes the west part of the Bronx community. Several political figures represent my 13th district (N. Y. City) in the Senate and the House of Representatives. (Ref: http://www.nycgo.com/) I. Summary of Three Articles relating N.Y. State First Article New York City is now Ebola free. Ebola is a deadly incurable ailment. The last Ebola patient, Dr. C. Spencer survived the Ebola infection. The story showed that the Ebola virus can be cured. In N.Y. City’s Bellevue Hospital, Dr. Spencer was literally cured from his Guinea trip’s infection. Dr. Spencer arrived in New Guinea to help alleviate the sufferings of the Ebola virus patients. The news article delved on the hot issue that the untreatable ebola virus may wipe out the N.Y. City’s population. The news article assuages the fears of the city’s residents that the possibly incurable and contagious Ebola virus will affect and spread to the entire city’s residents (Klein 1). Second Article Eric Garner was unintentionally killed by N.Y. city cops. The community of African Americans rose in anger over the murder of another African American. In response, a civilian murdered two innocent police officers. The news article shows that the arresting police officers did not intentionally kill African American victim Eric Garner. The news report indicates that the court handling the case of the arresting police officers that the court did not find anything illegal about the accidental death of Eric Garner. Thus, the arresting cops were freed. The Garner killing raised the issue of racial discrimination protests all over the city. The news article reports several African American protesters were outraged over the court’s finding the two arresting cops were not guilty of the death of Eric Garner. The frustrated African Americans of the city lined the streets of N. Y. city to voice their disgust over the court action on their Garner grievance (Fox News News 1). Third Article Further, the Police Union officers discouragingly questioned Mayor De Blasio’s statements on the Garner case. After the shooting of the two police officers, the Mayor acted to be on the side of the police officers for the death of their fellow officers’ murder. The police officers blamed the city mayor for the murder of their two fellow officers. Prior to the murder of their two police officers, the officers believed the mayor’s words led to the feared vengeance on their two fellow officers. The mayor insists that the members of the religious groups have the democratic right to pray in public places, including the public schools. The news article stated that the New York Civil Liberties group voiced their impression that by allowing the practice of religion in public places, the government is indirectly allowing the practice of religion in public places violates the separation of state and religion concept. The public schools are owned by the government. The news story created a significant impression that praying in public schools allows any group to freely violate the separation of state and religion principle. The news article showed the picture of police officers in full protection gear stopping crowds of African Americans who rallied against the justice system’s failure to find the two cops guilty of the crime of the untimely death of their fellow African American (FoxNews 1) (Ref: http://abc7.com/news/nyc-cops-killer-angry-over-eric-garner-death/445006/) Choice of 3 Elections: Two Candidates for each position Local N.Y. City election The mayor is the city’s top executive political leader. The mayor helps in the creation and implementation of laws affecting the city’s residents. The mayor helps the commissions craft new revenue-generating statutes. The mayor presides over the city’s commissions and other local political entities. The mayor prioritizes the beautification of the city. The mayor helps business establishments prosper economically in both the selling and purchasing of goods and services. The mayor helps the citizens resolve their individual or group problems/issues. The mayor oversees the preparation and implementation of the city’ approved budgets (Donovan 442). Further, the mayor race for New York City is between the current mayor Bill De Blasio and his challengers. The City mayor espoused adding more holidays for the Muslim faithful. The same mayor espoused religious practices within school properties. The same mayor continually helps members of the Jew community in their practice of circumcision rights. The present N.Y. City Mayor bends over to accommodate the religion-based clamors of the city’s residents (Hernandez 1). Furthermore, one of the challengers is Joe Lhota. Lhota espoused granting more holidays to the Muslim religion’s members. Lhota similarly espoused the use of school premises for religious or prayer activities. After successfully leading his local county’s politics, Lhota feels he is now able to seek a higher position. Lhota’s Republican partymates decide to pit Lhota against the more popular Democratic political party’s Mayor De Blasio. As the second biggest political party in the United States, Republican political party hopes that Lhota’s attacking some of the loopholes, failure, and corruption-related activities of the Democratic Mayor De Blasio, will result to Lhota winning the city’s mayor slot. Lhota espouses the circumcision practices of the Jew Community. Lhota espouse pro-religion priorities (Hernandez 1). New York State Election The N.Y. governor is the highest state executive (Statasky 154). The governor prioritizes the implementation of the prescribed laws. The mayor appoints the different state agencies’ directors. The mayor appoints the members of the different boards. The mayor appoints the persons handling all commissions within the state. Moreover, the governor post is contested in New York State. The contestants for the governor race are the incumbent Democratic political party Governor A. Cuomo and Republican political party challenger, R. Astorino (Larkin 1). Governor Cuomo prioritized implementation of human rights as well as social justice concepts. This is the very essence of the Democratic political party stand on the same issues. He established the HELP group. The group focuses on alleviating the plight of the poor and downtrodden members of N.Y. City society. He previously won the election for Attorney General. Governor A. Cuomo is N.Y. State’s 56th governor. He graduated from the popular Fordham University, located in the Bronx. He studied law within the confines of the Albany Law School. Governor Cuomo served under the administration of Former United States President B. Clinton (Cuomo 1). In addition, another candidate for Governor Cuomo’s job is Rob Astorino. Astorino is a Republican political leader of the Westchester County. He works as radio host. He works for the Catholic radio Channel, Sirius. He is a television host of several popular programs, including the MSG television network. He feels Cuomo’s current administration is filled with avoidable corruption (New York Post 1). Astorino insisted that he was able to reduce spending to allowable levels within his community. Federal (Congress) Election The Representatives’ House or Congress passes laws (James 58). The laws are implemented in the entire United States territories. The members of the house vote on a proposed new laws or amendments to certainly prevailing laws. One of the congress members includes N. Y. City’s M. Grimm. In the federal race, the race to represent the 11th District of New York State is between Michael Grimm (Republican political party). His office address is 7398 13th St. Brooklyn, N.Y. City. (Grimm 1). Grimm is an accountant and a lawyer. He is a former war veteran, serving in the Persian Gulf War. He served with the FBI to fight corruption and other illegal activities. Grimm’s priorities include reducing avoidable spending to allowable levels. He continually serves the needs of his N. Y. City constituents. He espouses the cancellation of Obama’s current medical care program, insisting that government should not excessively pay for the medical expenses of the citizens. Grimm espouses the implementation of high quality healthcare services. He continually fights for creation of new jobs for his constituents (Grimm 1). He graduated from Fordham University. Further, Dominic Recchia is Grimm’s opponent for the Congress post. Recchia is former N. Y. City council member. Recchia is a professor by profession. He is a member of the Democratic political party. News reports described Recchia as lacking the required information needed to make better decisions. News reports also created an impression on the general electing public that Recchia was mentally not equipped to run for Congress. Likewise, Recchia was portrayed as one who could not explain his thoughts in both very convincing and effective manners. Recchia used his huge money sources to advertise his capacity to represent his N.Y. City district I the United States Congress (Bredderman 1). One Issue the Successful Candidate will Influence the Constituents The successful candidate will be able to influence the constituents on the implementation of the religious practices within the community. For the devout religious persons, they prefer candidates that espouse practicing religious practices within public places. Public places include government offices. Public places include schools and parks. Some politicians will insist on a separation of the state from any religion-based activities. Further, the successfully candidate must adhere to the atheist group members’ desire to remove religious signs and practices, with its official website http://atheists.org/. The atheists insist that there is no God existing in the world (Barak 336). In the same manner, the same successful candidate will adhere to the demands of the devout Islam, Catholic, and other religions’ members to implement their unique religious practices in public places. One group, the Muslims, will require the imposition of additional city holidays for their religion’s members. Similarly, the successful candidate will adhere to the American Jews espouse the practice of their religion in the United States territories. In its website, http://www.haaretz.com/opinion, the Jews insist that Rabbis prohibit its members to join the military service (Yoffie 1). Such religious practice violates the United States constitution requires its citizens to join the United States military services. American Jews should be allowed to rally for more religious freedom among its members, according to a Jewish organization, http://www.reformjudaism.org/jewish-views-religious-freedom. Candidate that I Trust to Take the Right Position on the Above Issue Further, I trust most the candidate who represents the Democratic political party. The party candidate implements the party’s position on the issue, which is grounded on democratic principles. The candidate implements the party’s principle of ensuring free practice of one’s religion. The party’s priority issues include preservation and implementation of social justice, rights and liberties. I belong to the Democratic political party. The Muslims can pray 5 times a day. The seventh day Adventist can stop working on Saturdays. The Catholics can freely pray to statue representations of the saints, Jesus and Mary. Moreover, the religious groups significantly influence politics. If the political leaders refuse to give in to the demands of the group, the group members will not vote for the political leaders. The power of the vote affects the political leaders stay in power. The group can persuade the political leaders to mediate between the demands of opposing group’s demands, including religious demands. The groups use mouth to mouth advertising to oppose the election of political leaders who oppose the groups’ demands. The groups can rally on the streets to voice out their dismay over the political leaders’ opposing or not favorably acting on the groups’ diverse demands. Important Issue of Interest One important issue of interest is the implementation of religious practices in public places. The issue is very important to me because different groups have opposing or diverse sides to the religion issue. One group may have the same stand on the religion issue with another group. Two different groups may have opposing views on the religion issue. There are two interest groups on opposite sides of the issue. One group’s interest is opposing the use of religious signs or religious practices in public places, the Atheist group. The members of the Atheist group oppose the use of any religious sign in public places. They adhere to the principle that there should be a separation between the government and religion. Thus, religion has no place within any government buildings. The group’s website is http://atheists.org/. The atheists insist that there is no God existing in the world (Barak 336). Another group places importance on inclusion of religious signs and practice of religion in public places. The members of the Bronx Faith Household, www.bhof.org/, espouse the practice of one’s religion in public places. The group’s interest is to ensure the members can freely pray within the confines of N. Y. City’s public schools. The household’s Rev Robert Hall sued the city for banning practice of the group’s religion in public places. The Federal Appeals court reversed the lower court’s decision that allows practice of one’s religion in public places. N. Y. City Mayor de Blasio espoused allowing the practice of one’s religion in public places, especially within the city’s public schools (Weiser & Otterman 1). Ref: www.bhof.org/, How They Attempt to Influence Politics on the Above Issue, Strategies The two parties attempt to influence politics on the religion issue. The two groups rallied for the implementation of their groups’ diverse sides on the religion issue. The two sides voiced their concerns on the general public to favor each group’s side on the issue. The two groups hoped that the general public will be persuaded to accept the side of one of the groups. By rallying the public, the two groups hoped that the majority of the public will tilt the balance on the issue of religion on the side with the most number of public adherents or sympathizers. Finally, the two groups filed cases in courts. The two groups decided to wait for the courts to decide which side is correct on the religion issue. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, politics includes the N. Y. State political leaders’ serving the needs of the residents. The political environment of New York State is grounded on improving the lives of the residents. The congressmen and senators create laws to ensure peace and prosperity fills the N.Y. State social environment. Evidently, the N.Y. State political leaders are doing their best to improve the health, societal, and other needs of the local constituents. Works Cited Cuomo, Andrew. Wall Street Journal. "Andrew Cuomo." The Wall Street Journal 2014: 1. Print. Barak, Josiah. The United States, Law, Government, Religion, Christianity, and Illegalitiesa. New York: West Bow Press, 2011. Print. Bredderman, Will. "Grimm Now Crushing Recchia by 19 Points, Poll Shows." New York Observer 2014 31 October: 1. Print. Donovan, Todd. State and Local Politics . New York: Cengage Learning , 2012. Print. FoxNews. "Blood on Many Hands: Police Union President Slams De Blasio after Cops Killing." Fox News d. Print. Grimm, Michael. Michael Grimm. Web. Dec 21, 2014. Hernandez, Javier. "Top 2 Candidates Vow to Make City Hall more Faith -friendly ." New York Times 3 November 2013. Print. James, Nickolas. Business Law. New York : J. Wiley & Sons , 2012. Print. Klein, Sarah. "New York City is Ebola Free." Huffington Post 11 November 2014: 1. Print. Larkin, Casey. "Nationanwide Midterm Elections Create Close Race for New York Candidates." The Lamron 6 November 2014: 1. Print. Eyewitness News. "NYC Cops Killer Angry Over Eric Garner Death." Eyewitness News 20 December 2014: 1. Print. New York Post. "Rob Astorino for Governor of New York." New York Post 27 October 2014: 1. Print. Statasky, William. The New York Paralegal. New York: Cengage Learning , 2010. Print. Weiser, Benjamin, Otterman, Sharon. "New York City Can Block Religious Services in Public Schools, Appeals Court Says." New York Times 3 April 2014: 1. Print. Read More