All information for this article on Hillary’s political policy was derived from Hillary Clinton's campaign website.
1. LGBT Rights
Hillary can be quoted saying “gay rights are human rights." Hillary Clinton wants to promote equality among the LGBT community. Her initiative to protect the LGBT population is extremely important, when according to her website, “Today in America, nearly 65 percent of LGBT individuals report experiencing discrimination in their daily lives. LGBT youth are nearly twice as likely as their peers to be physically assaulted at school, and 74 percent of LGBT students say they’ve been verbally harassed for their sexual orientation. And a recent study found that nearly 50 percent of of LGBT elders experienced discrimination when applying for senior housing. Despite this discrimination, 31 states do not have fully inclusive LGBT non-discrimination laws.”
She wants “full federal equality for LGBT Americans.”
My favorite part of her policy includes an effort to stop conversion therapies for LGBT minors. Conversion therapy is highly debated and works to “convert” homosexual people to heterosexual people. She also has a ton of ideas regarding creating protection for transgender people who are currently extremely marginalized and discriminated against in modern America.
2. Alzheimer’s Disease
Hillary wants to work to find a cure for a disease that is currently effecting thousands of elderly Americans, as well as their families, who must slowly watch their loved one deteriorate under a terrible disease.
We all know or at least have heard of someone who has been effected by Alzheimer’s Disease, so her plan to invest $2 billion into NIH is a noble pursuit. Where does this number come from? $2 billion dollars is “the amount leading researchers have determined is necessary to prevent and treat the disease and make a cure possible by 2025.”
Hillary will also work to make this funding reliable and accessible, “so that researchers can work consistently toward effective treatments and pursue long-term research that will pay off down the road.”
This is just one part of Hillary’s extensive plan to fight Alzheimer’s Disease in addition to helping and protecting patients and their families.
3. Her stance on guns
Hillary’s stance on guns protects our right to bear arms while also keeping more Americans safe. She wants to increased background checks on people wishing to purchase guns while also closing what is called the “Charleston Loophole," “the loophole that allows a gun sale to proceed without a completed background check if that check has not been completed within three days.”
More background checks just makes sense. If you are going to own a lethal weapon, you should have a background check run on you. Hillary wants to push legislation that keeps weapons out of the hands of people who are domestic abusers and stalkers. Her policy also includes an initiative on those who buy guns to give to violent felons; this, under her policy, would be a federal crime.
4. Climate Change
Lets face it, there are a lot of republican politicians who are so anti-anything they are even denying climate change is real. This is pretty stupid, considering that while jobs would be lost in the oil industry, thousands of jobs would be created in the new renewable energy sector, including engineering jobs, construction jobs, maintenance jobs, etc.
According to her policy, Hillary wants to make “America the world’s clean energy superpower.” I think this is a pretty noble pursuit, considering if we do not act now, we will only continue to hurt our planet at exponential rates.
Hillary not only wants to generate jobs in the clean energy sector, but she also plans to, “Set national goals to have 500 million solar panels installed; generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America; cut energy waste in homes, schools, and hospitals by a third; and reduce American oil consumption by a third.” While these are pretty hefty goals, we as a nation seriously need to take this next step in order to create a more sustainable American lifestyle. She also had a plan to drastically reduce “greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below what they were in 2005.”
These may seem like drastic changes, but we need to make a big change to save our planet. Her plan in pretty in-depth, and this was a mere overview.
5. Medical leave
It is a problem when “Today, the United States is the only developed nation in the world with no guaranteed paid leave of any kind. In fact, only 13 percent of American workers have access to paid family leave—with the lowest paid workers up to four times less likely to have access than the highest paid.“
Hillary wants to be able to “Guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.” This means employees get time to take care of a new baby or maybe even a sick relative. Hillary wants to give these rights to both male and female employees, drastically expanding American maternity and paternity care. This means employees no longer have to rush back to work if they themselves are sick, they have a loved one in need, or if they want to bond with the newest addition to their family.
How is she going to pay for this? By taxing America’s wealthiest and not imposing a burden on the middle class.
For more information on all of Hillary’s ideas for the good ol' US of A, head over to her website. There, you can learn more about her stance on issues such as college, criminal justice reform, disability rights, the economy, and campus sexual assault.
