A Juxtaposition of Republican and Democratic Parties

To properly compare the Democratic and Republican party platforms, I am going to pick three political issues that have popped up in this year’s election and review the party’s opinions and plans and highlight their similarities and differences. The three political issues will be immigration, gun control, and taxes.

Starting with immigration, first looking at the democratic platform. Clinton basically says that she will make immigration easier. She wants to end the three and 10 year bars. She says she’ll do everything possible to protect immigrant families. She states she’ll close the detention centers and try to expand access to affordable health care. Clinton and the Democrats seem all for immigration. Now, taking a look over at the Republican candidate’s stance. Trump wants to put American citizens first. He wants a wall, plans on ending catch-and-release. No more sanctuary cities, no visas to countries without adequate screening, countries must take their deportees back. He wants to put in place a visa tracking system. No more job and benefits magnet. He is against massive immigration and wants to put America first.

Next onto gun control. Clinton’s platform on gun control isn’t actually the worst thing ever. She wants to expand background checks and get rid of the Charleston Loophole. She plans on taking on the gun lobby and revoking licenses. She wants to make it illegal for domestic abusers, violent criminals, and the severely mentally ill to be able to obtain guns. Of course, none of these plans do anything if someone manages to get a gun illegally, but we really can’t do anything about that until after the fact. Trump, although not an advocate of taking guns away from everyone, shares a similar stance. Obviously he wants to support the Second Amendment right to bear arms. But he also wants to get serious about the prosecution of violent criminals. He also plans on getting gangs and drug dealers off the street. He also plans on expanding mental health programs to keep the violent mentally ill off the streets. However, he still wants to empower law-abiding gun owners to be able to keep defending themselves if necessary.

Finally, looking at something that really will affect us. Taxes. Clinton’s platform is raising taxes on the wealthy. I’m not super sure why, since she counts as wealthy. She phrases it as “restore basic fairness to our tax code”. She plans on closing corporate and Wall Street tax loopholes. She plans on charging an exit tax for companies leaving the US. She also wants to cut taxes for small business and pay for ambitious investments in a fiscally responsible way. Trump’s platform on taxes is a little different. He plans on reducing taxes across the board, especially for working and middle class Americans. He also will eliminate special interest loopholes, and entice business to stay in America and those who have moved to come back to America. He also will reduce the cost of child care by allowing families to deduct the full cost of childcare from their taxes. His tax plan will increase the economy and grow jobs.

Comparing their platforms on these issues, you can see that they both have good ideas. We may not need a physical wall but we do need harsher immigration policies, especially with ISIS growing stronger every day. Stricter gun laws would be nice, but if we can get the gang bangers and violent criminals off the streets, that would be nice too. They both want to stimulate the American economy since Obamacare is basically collapsing now. They both want guns off the street, where they are hurting people. Clinton is pro-immigration and Trump is pro-isolation. Clinton wants to tax the rich and Trump wants to reduce taxes across the board. Similar ideas (sometimes), but different methods.