Name: Political Ideology: Crash Course Government and Politics #35
Uploaded: 2016-09-18T04:26:40.000Z
Duration: 8 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hi, I'm Craig, and this is Crash Course Government and Politics. And today, we're gonna get personal.

Not personal in the sense that I'm gonna tell you I'm a bed wetter cause I'm not...gonna tell you that.

We're gonna talk about people's personal political views and where they come from. This is what

political scientists sometimes call Political Socialization.

But before we get into the forces that help create our political outlooks, we should probably

define what political ideologies look like in America.

In America, there are a number of ways people characterize themselves politically.

Typically, they identify with a political party, although as we'll see when we talk more about parties,

And although there's a lot of overlap between political party and political ideology, there's

But there is 100% overlap between my fist and this eagle's beak! Politics.

So, now I should probably say what I mean by political ideology. Basically, I'm talking

about whether you identify as liberal or conservative or libertarian or socialist or anarchist or

nihilist or craigist - people who just love me. I'm one of those.

You're probably familiar with the idea that liberals are on the left, and conservatives

are on the right. And this can be a helpful shorthand, but what political views do these terms represent?

Let's go to the Clone Zone! What? The Clone Zone - it's right here now? I'll just...I'll

Taking a cue from anti-federalists, American conservatives believe that a large government poses

a threat to individual liberty, and we prefer our national  government to be as small as possible. (Scoffs)

We have this in common with libertarians. There are some basic functions like national

defense that government can best take care of. But especially since the New Deal, our

government has taken on too much. What government we need is best handled by states and localities.

For the most part, American conservatives believe in the free market and that it will

provide the greatest economic opportunity and benefit to the greatest number of people.

American conservatives usually support a strong defense. This is one place where we generally don't

think spending should be cut. Most other programs, the things that fall under discretionary spending,

can and should be left up to the private sector. And  this will allow the government to reduce its spending.

Lower spending, in turn, will mean lower taxes. Ahh, delicious lower taxes.

This means that we don't like flag burning, and we favor prayer in schools because these

reflect traditional religious and patriotic values.

Just like the eagle. I love the eagle. You're my friend. (Kisses eagle)

Many conservatives, as strong adherents to religious faiths, are against abortion.

But I'd say there's a greater diversity in conservative views on social issues than on economic ones.

The social sphere is where we differ significantly from our libertarian friends who don't see

any role for government in people's personal lives. This means that libertarians often

support things like marijuana legalization that more traditional conservatives do not support.

If there's one value that American conservatives privilege above others, it's liberty. America

is a country of freedom, and in most cases, government is more of a threat to liberty than a protector of it.

And I'm out. (Kisses hand and touches eagle's head)

Not bad conservative clone. But bad, here's why.

Sometimes liberals in the U.S. are called New Deal Liberals because the policies that we

support grew out of the New Deal. And lately, a number of us are trying to re-brand ourselves as progressives.

Although this is a little tricky given that, historically, progressives and liberals aren't the same thing.

In general, American liberals believe that government can help solve problems, and a

bigger government, like a glorious soaring eagle can solve bigger problems and more of them.

We support government intervention in the economy, both in the form of regulations and

higher taxes, especially when that intervention benefits historically marginalized groups

We like to the government step in on behalf of consumers and to protect the environment

because in general, we don't trust that the free market will be fair to everyone.

We know that protection of the environment, aiding the poor, and expanding civil liberties all cost money,

so we usually favor a progressive tax system with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Although not all American liberals are anti-business, as a rule we don't have a lot of faith that big

businesses have the average American's best interest at heart, and so we prefer to see them regulated.

Although we still see national defense as important, most American liberals feel that

the country spends more than enough on the military and that the defense budget should

be cut, leaving more money for necessary social programs.

In the debate over guns or butter, we like butter. Although we're also fine with the

government telling us not to eat so much of it.

If conservatives value liberty, we liberals cherish equality as their primary political

virtue, and we see government as a necessary agent in promoting equality. (Kisses hand and pats eagle's head)

Thanks clones. So, for the most part, this is what most American liberals and conservatives

believe, and these are the basic foundations upon which they build their political opinions.

But where do they come from? (Punches eagle and eagle tumbles to the floor)

Political scientists sometimes refer to the process by which individuals establish their

personal political ideologies as political socialization. And they have identified four

main agents that contribute to our political identities.

The first and most important source of our politics is family. This makes a lot of sense

since kids either want to emulate their parents or reject their ideas. And parents are usually

the first people that express political opinions to kids.

As I suggested, family can influence your political outlook in negative and positive

ways. If you respect your parents and admire them, it's likely you will adopt their political ideology.

On the other hand, adopting an opposing political view can be a form of rebellion.

Still, for the most part, liberal parents breed liberal children, and conservative parents

The second major influence on political ideology is social groups, which in this case, refer

to one's race, gender, religion, or ethnicity. Obviously, these are generalizations, but

certain groups tend to fall predictably into liberal or conservative camps.

African Americans and Jewish people are among the most liberal Americans while white Catholics

tend to be conservative. Latinos are an interesting case because many identify as Catholic, but

they tend to be more liberal politically.

One of the reasons that many use to explain why African Americans and Latinos tend to be

liberals is that these groups are disproportionately poor and receive a significant share of government benefits.

To this way of thinking, economic self interest is a prime determiner of where one stands

politically, and it also explains why white conservatives, especially those who are wealthy,

favor policies of lower taxes and less government intervention.

One problem with this purely self interested view of political ideology though is that

there is a large number of low income, low wealth white voters who also do or would gain

from more government benefits. But they tend to be conservative.

In other words, be careful when you try to define a person's politics by looking at their bank account.

Gender also tends to be statistically significant in terms of political ideology. The gender

gap refers to the fact that women tend to be more liberal overall than men. This is especially

true on the issue of national defense where they tend to favor spending reductions rather than increases.

Thanks Thought Bubble. The third agent of political socialization in the U.S. is education,

namely the primary and secondary school system.

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Political Ideology: Crash Course Government and Politics #35

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