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 because 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
[Music]
in America there are a number of ways
that people characterize themselves
politically typically they identify with
a political party although as we'll see
when we talk more about parties this has
become less likely over time and
although there's a lot of overlap
between political party and political
ideology there's not a hundred percent
correspondence between the two but there
is a hundred percent overlap between my
fist and this Eagles 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 criest
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 clown's own what the
clones own it's right here now I'll just
I'll leave then this way I'll go this
way 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 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
federal 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
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 many
conservatives as strong adherence to
religious faiths are against abortion
but I'd say there is 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
of others its 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
not bad conservative clone but bad
here's why sometimes liberals in the US
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 rebrand 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 like minorities
women and the poor we like to see 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
in 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
Americans 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 our primary
political virtue and we see government
as a necessary agent in promoting
equality or equals meaning that Eagle
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 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 let's go to the
thought-bubble 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 and negative and
positive ways if you respect your
parents and admire them it's likely that
you will adopt their political ideology
on the
and adopting an opposing political view
can be a form of rebellion still for the
most part liberal parents breed liberal
children and conservative parents create
new generations of conservatives a
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 favored
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 for 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 this is the most formal way that
our political views are shaped since
almost all American students take at
least one year of American history and
many states require courses in civics in
these courses students learn about
political values like liberty and
equality and may come to align
themselves with a liberal or
conservative view and maybe you're
watching me in one of these classes
right now
conservatives tend to think that
American schools and textbooks skewed
towards a liberal outlook but this might
be because most public school teachers
are members of unions and teachers union
membership correlates highly with a
liberal viewpoint whether or not most
teachers and textbooks are liberal it's
a bit of a leap to assume that most
students will automatically adopt the
ideology of their teachers education
does relate to political ideology in at
least one measurable way though and at
the higher the level of the education
one attains the more likely one is to
profess liberal views on issues such as
women's rights or abortion on the other
hand higher education levels also
correlate with more conservative views
on issues like government support of
national health insurance or affirmative
action programs to help
african-americans so as with many things
we look at things aren't so clear-cut
and it's important to have some kind of
data to back up our generalizations one
final agent of political socialization
are the political conditions one lives
through example if you grew up during
the Great Depression and saw FDR's New
Deal programs benefit you and your
family it's likely that you developed
and maintained pro-government liberal
views if you came of age during the
Reagan era when popular politicians were
singing the praises of self-reliance and
calling government the problem rather
than the solution it's likely that you
develop conservative political views it
remains to be seen whether people who
form their political identities during
the Great Recession will be liberal or
conservative but don't worry pollsters
are busy trying to figure it out so
there you have a very broad outline of
what the words conservative and liberal
mean in American politics and some of
the factors that turn people into
liberals are conservatives more than
probably anything I've said in this
series these are generalizations that
you need to look at critically this
doesn't mean that if you find someone or
if you are someone who doesn't fit
either description 100 percent that
we're completely wrong only that
political ideologies are complex and
change over time but we need to
understand the outlines of these
generalities because they get used all
the time in our discussions of American
politics in fact it would be hard to
talk about politics without them thanks
for watching see you next time
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crash course was made with the help of
all of these political ideologues
thanks for watching
you