A 1) After graduating magna cum laude from the St. Lawrence University with a Bachelor’s degree in government, Susan Collins’ political career began when she served as a legislative assistant to William Cohen, a U.S. representative, who eventually became a U.S. state senator. After this, she also worked as the staff director on the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee for the U.S Senate Committee on Homeland Security. It was her stint as the Commissioner of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation for Governor John R. McKernan, Jr. Followed by her work as the Deputy State Treasurer of Massachusetts that laid the foundation of her run for Governor of Maine .
After winning the primaries, she became the first woman to be nominated by either Republicans or Democrats to run for such an influential position. Although she lost the elections, yet when Cohen resigned from his senate seat since he was being appointed the Secretary of Defence, Collins announced her decision to run for U.S Senate from Maine. She won the election, and since then has been re-elected in 2002, 2008 and 2012.
2) The 63-year old Senator Susan Margaret Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996 after defeating her democratic opponent Joe Brennan in the general elections. Collins became the U.S. State Senator from Maine, the post vacated by her former boss William Cohen.
3) Currently, Senator Collins chairs the Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies. In addition to this, she is also a member of the following: Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Member, Subcommittee on Department of Defense, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence .
4) In 2013, Collins sponsored a bill titled Forty Hours Is Full Time Act. The bill aimed to modify the Internal Revenue Code with regards to the criteria utilised by employers to decide whether or not to offer medical coverage to employees. The Bill targeted two areas pertaining to Health Care Coverage for employees; how employers calculate the number of full-time employees on their payroll as well as the criteria used to categorise employees as full-time or part-time. Before the Bill, the number of hours an employee had to work to be considered a full-time employee was 30 hours per week; the Bill revised this to 40 hours/week .
5) The issues that Senator Collins has been targeting are mostly related to healthcare reforms. The most prominent of which is her work with regards to increasing funding and research to explore treatments and preventive measures for Alzheimer’s by 2025. In addition to this, she has also actively advocated investment in medical research for diabetes, regulating pharmaceutical companies to ensure that people have access to medications and treatments as well as protecting employee rights .
B) The principle used by men to continue their opposition of allowing women the right to vote was that first of all women were perceived as fragile beings who were incapable of both thinking rationally as well as making decisions on their own. And since it was believed that the duty of a woman is to get married and have children, it was assumed that even if women were given the right to vote, they would end up being influenced by their spouses and vote for whom they were told to vote, in the end duplicating numbers rather than making any substantial difference to the outcome. Also, since politics was viewed as being led by corrupt, sharp and entirely self-serving individuals, allowing women the right to vote was thought to be a negative influence on their morals and character.
After the basic human right of having access to food, clothing, shelter and education, I believe that the right to vote is fundamental for any progressive society. This is because voting rights allow every citizen of a country – regardless of financial status, level of education, occupation, religion or language – to have a voice in deciding who their representative will be in the government. Since that representative influences the policies that are implemented that affect the people’s daily lives, I believe people should have the right to decide the kind of person they want as their leader. I also disagree with the popular perception that only ‘educated’ people can form a democracy; it is not about having an academic degree, rather about being enlightened, aware and mature in perception and thinking.
Works Cited
Collins, Susan. Assessing the Progress and the Work to be Done in the Fight to End Alzheimer’s. Maine, 8 April 2016. Web
Tritch, Teresa. "Trying to Redefine ‘Full-Time Work’." The New York Times 22 November 2013. Web
