Assignment #3 – Family Policy for the 21 st Century
Due: Monday, December 9 th
Upload to Canvas by 12:30pm
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Background Reading: Diversity in Families – Chapters 14
Instructions: As discussed in class, the U.S. has no official family policy. Instead it has various
laws, court decisions, regulations, and policies that effect families, but lack coherence. With the
presidential election next year, candidates and political parties have begun to outline their policy
positions. For this assignment you will analyze the policy positions of President Donald J. Trump
and one other candidate who is also running for the presidency in 2020. You will also analyze
the policy platforms of the two major political parties.
Assignment Write-up: Begin by familiarizing yourself with the following four websites.
1. Republican Party Platform: https://www.gop.com/platform/
2. Donald J. Trump for President: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/
3. Democratic Party Platform: https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/
4. Choose one candidate running against President Trump*
*You can pick whatever other candidate you want however below is a list of some of the
candidates and their websites.
Joe Biden: https://joebiden.com/
Bernie Sanders: https://berniesanders.com/
Elizabeth Warren: https://elizabethwarren.com/
Kamala Harris: https://kamalaharris.org/
Pete Buttigieg: https://peteforamerica.com/
Corey Booker: https://corybooker.com/
Andrew Yang: https://www.yang2020.com/
Tulsi Gabbard: https://tulsi2020.com
Julián Castro: https://www.julianforthefuture.com/
Amy Klobuchar: https://amyklobuchar.com/
Browse through the two candidate’s websites and the two party platform websites. While reading
through the websites familiarize yourself with the topics they highlight that impact families (ex.
the economy, jobs, housing, healthcare, education, immigration, child care, parental leave,
women’s reproductive rights, taxes, welfare, same sex marriage, elder care, etc.). Compare and
contrast the policy positions described on the Trump/Republican Party Platform websites to the
policy positions described on the Other Candidate/Democratic Party Platform websites. Which
issues that impact families do the different candidates/party platforms choose to focus on? What
do the different candidates/party platforms view as the greatest challenges facing American
families today? What policy solutions, legislation, or actions do each think should be taken?
Finally, what direction do you think family policy in the U.S. will take in the future? Will it go in
the direction of the rest of the developed world (ex. Europe, Canada, Australia, etc.)? Will it stay
relatively the same? Or will it move in a more traditionally conservative direction?
Plagiarism: It is very important that you do not cut and paste content from the websites into
your assignment. This is plagiarism and you will receive a grade of “F.” You need to paraphrase
in your own words the content you are reading. Do not put long quotes into your assignment. I
am limiting you to no more than two quotes for the entire assignment (each quote can be no more
than two lines long).
Assignment Format:
Word document
2.0 (double-spaced)
1 inch margins
12pt Times New Roman font
4 ½ – 5 pages long (approximately 1,500 – 2,000 words)
Formatting
In newer versions of Word the default setting is Calibri (Body) 11pt with ¶ Normal or (multiple)
spacing which you will need to change. Follow the instructions below to change the formatting
to 2.0 spacing, 1 inch margins, 12pt Times New Roman font.
Spacing:
Click the box at the top of the document that says “¶ No Spacing.”
Click “Paragraph” then in the drop down menu under Line Spacing: click “double” then press “ok.”
Font & Size:
Set the font to “Times New Roman” and size to “12” Margins:
At the top of the document click “Page Layout” then click “Page Setup” then set the top, bottom, right and left margins to 1 inch.
