Civil rights events

Abolition of the slave trade. Slave trade was an act of buying and selling of captives and other people in exchange for goods between Americans and the black people from Africa. The blacks were bought to provide labor to the whites’. Because this was an inhumane activity, the activists and reformers began demonstrating against the act. Therefore the U.s debated and passed an act to prohibit the slave trade in the US. This was steered by the American Revolution. This event took place on 1/1/18808. Slave trade increased racism in the United States and mistreatment of the slaves. This event helped create civil rights movements by the blacks led by elites like Martin Luther King (“Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom,” 2017)

The people of the American state eventually achieved the legal right of equality.            The court of law and the state ensured equality to all people including the people of color. Despite the fact the blacks achieved this right, the rate of social segregation in the society increased by great scales.

Legalizing of homosexuality. This is an event that became legal to all citizens of the United States. It took place on June 26, 2015.As from this date, all state in the US license and exercising homosexuality rights. They recognized marriage between same sexes after the Supreme Court decided in the Obergefell v. Hodges. Therefore the Supreme Court legalized the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. Thus they are protected via the federal legislation. It is exercised from ages 16.

This expansion of this LGBT rights eliminated sodomy laws in the American states, crossed out Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and made the homosexuality rights legal nationwide. Because of legalizing this civil right,  all the united states including Washington D.C and Puerto Rico declares discrimination of this laws illegal based on the sexual and gender orientation. The courts, federal system and the society also punish the hate offenses based on sexual and gender identity. Hate crimes are prevented by the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.This civil right got advantages like the adoption of children by the same married sex genders in the nation. Following the legalizing the of the LGBT rights, the society and any other civil rights could be legally exercised by the same sexes married couples without discrimination. This included medical facilities and rights, such as Medicare and Medicaid, housing rights, employment rights, hate crimes rights conjugal visitations, military service, blood and tissue donations. All these rights could be exercised by all citizen of the United States despite their gender and marriage identity  (“LGBT rights in the United States,” 2017).

Media events

One of the major media events in history that have influenced the American people about their government failings and successes is the Ruby Ridge event. This event greatly influenced the people’s perception of the government. This event involved a standoff between the Weaver family at their rural home at Idaho residence and the government agents sent from the US Marshal and the FBI Service centers. It all started when the agents tried to issues an arrest warrant against Weaver family member. They allegedly said that Randy Weaver had possessed illegal weapons. All the tries to arrest and have him surrender the weapons were unsuccessful as he remained calm at his home. After a ten- days confrontations, all the Weaver family members except Randy and the U.s government marshal agents died. This reaction of the federal agents that killed the Weaver family instilled negative opinions in the public that the federal law enforcement agencies overuse their powers, they are aggressive and brutal in protecting and controlling the lives of the US citizens. The mistrust from the US citizens is observed or experienced often; this includes incidences as the Siege at Waco and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the Oregon (Hobley, 2012).

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Another event that greatly influenced the public opinion towards the federal system or agencies is the FEMA response towards the devastations in the New Orleans that happened after the Hurricane at Katrina. FEMA was a Federal Emergency Management Agency that aided in critical emergencies. The criticism by the media was FEMA’s slow response to the British aircraft fight. The FEMA director defended the agency by explaining that they had no power to execute over the New Orleans. He further said that the Constitution had not guaranteed any legal right to FEMA that it is a federal entity. Through this, all the public blames were on the federal system starting from the city mayor to the president by delaying to ensure evacuations from the city. This event at Hurricane Katrina accounts for the distrust created or instilled in many citizens towards the government agencies and the federal system at large (Hobley, 2012).

Differences between republicans and democrats

The democratic and republican parties’ variations arise from their ideological and political orientations. While the Democratic Party is left-leaning liberal and mostly associated with progress and equality, the Republican Party is right learning traditional based and deals with equity and economic freedom. With the different origins and oppositional political grounds, they have various ideologies that have great ethical impacts on the public. The first one is the same-sex marriages differences. While the Republicans argue about the homosexual marriages and rights because they believe that marriage is set to be between a man and a woman only, the Democrats are in support of the of the same-sex marriage and oppose any same-sex discrimination nationwide and campaign for equal rights as the heterosexual couples (Green, 2012).

Another difference that exists between the Republican and the democrat’s parties is the abortion difference. The republican greatly influenced their religious factors and traditions, they disallowed abortion and believed that it is illegal. They believed that the unborn child had a right to live thus its life cannot be taken away. On the other hand, the Democrats were in support of the abortion right of Roe vs. Wade and thought that any woman should be allowed to make her own decisions concerning her pregnancy, and the federal have not to influence her over the same (Green, 2012).