Last Man Standing
Last Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style In this documentary we learn about the different views politicians have when running for many offices. Particularly, in this film, we see the diverse opinions from Rick Green, a republican and Patrick Rose, a democrat. These two politicians are running to become the Texas state representative and do so by many ways of campaigning. The role of the citizen legislature is to work within a political culture with a strong suspicion of government and a history of accepting the involvement of wealthy businesses in politics. The Texas Constitution creates this part-time legislature that meets for a relatively brief 140 days every other year. This legislature receives most of their income from outside sources. Together these institutional and cultural forces have limited the ability of the legislature to fully play its representational role. One of the major issue areas discussed in the documentary that concerned Patrick Rose was the lack of children health care. This alarmed him because he wanted more children insured, therefore leading to a more healthy society in Texas. He wanted to be able to offer more insurance to those who were in need of it. On the other hand, Rick Green saw this as a problem. He was against more health insurance because he thought it was the citizen’s responsibility to attain health insurance. Rick thought people should take care of themselves and shouldn’t go run to the doctor for every little concern that came about. Ideologies can best described as a pattern of political beliefs about how society and the economy operate, including policy orientations consistent with that pattern; a set of beliefs consistent with a particular political perspective. There are two types of ideologies that candidates obtain that of a conservative or that of a liberal. A conservative, like Rick Green, believes in a limited role for government in taxation, economic regulation, and providing social services;