original story here:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/after-the-midterms-the-diversity-gap-in-the-house-will-be-wider-than-ever/
After our discussion in class yesterday, I went to FiveThirtyEight.com and I browsed the politics section, where I found an interesting article on the predicted outcomes of the midterm elections for the House. According to Silver, the GOP will still hold the House. (More Republics than Democrats will have seats.) However, a different statistic had the Democrats very excited-their caucus will be composed of more than 50% female and minority Representatives. I have a few opinions on why Republicans can't get any women elected, but since they are similar to Silver's, I invite you to read his original article, posted at the top. To the women in the class I ask- would you feel misrepresented as a member of the Republican party or as the citizen of a Republican-dominated state? (Just to keep it clear, I definitely would/do.) And to the men in the class-do you think it really makes a difference to have women in our government or do the men do a good job of representing both sexes? And to everyone-what about minorities? Are they well represented even if the Representatives don't have the same background, race, religion, or ethnicity?
My feeling is that it doesn't really matter if the representatives match the populace in gender or race. What matters is whether or not they care about that portion of the citizenry as much as they care about the portion they are a part of. As a general rule, the answer is probably no. As much as men may try to think like women, we can't. No man will ever be able represent the female demographic as well as an actual female. Although many women vote the same as their husbands, they are definitely people in their own right, and it isn't fair to insist on representing them with men. The same goes for other races. I think that the WASP men try to represent everyone well, but it just doesn't always work. Diversity is necessary to engender equal treatment of all.
ReplyDelete-Liam Brookhart