Georgiev 1

George Georgiev
Professor Agosta
UWRT 1102
10 April 2016
American Politics and Society
We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we
want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free
streets. The argument is how to achieve them ("Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs.")
Every four years our country comes together to elect a president whom will represent our
country. However, it is not every election that we see such a divide amongst the voters and their
respective candidates. On the left, we have Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders; and on the right
we have Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Now, you may already know this and you may even have
an idea for who you want to vote for, but do you fully understand why you are voting for them
over the others? According to a poll by The Last Renaissance, 83% of American voters are
uninformed about politics and 29% believe that their vote does not matter. Although those
numbers seem staggering, it reveals a truth about our society: most of us are not making an
informed decision for whom we vote. This is a major problem that impacts the outcome of these
elections and the future of our country. I am focusing my research on a particular group of
uninformed votersyoung voters. In the 2012 election, nearly 23 million voters (49%) under the
age of 30 casted a ballot. (Youth Turnout: At Least 49%, 22-23 Million Under-30 Voted) It proved
to be the one of deciding factors in the nomination of Barack Obama. In this paper, I would like

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to discuss in detail the different political ideologies and societal trends in an effort to extend my
best knowledge to you.
There are multiple factors that affect our decision in choosing one political ideology over
another. We note that some voters are conservative and tend to vote Republican, some are
Liberal and tend to vote Democratic. In this process families are generally the first, and often the
most enduring, influence on young people's developing political opinions. ("What Factors
Shape Political Attitudes?") It makes sense since we tend to look toward our parents for
guidance. For example, when I was younger I was always in the midst of political debates that
occurred in my household. My father was very passionate about his ideas and so was my mother.
Being stuck in-between the two is what makes your learn to inquire for yourself and bounce off
of the same ideas your parents have. This is the reason that today I have a similar political
ideology to that of my parents. Another trend we can observe is the way in which people of
different genders vote, and more specifically women. In recent elections women have voted
strongly Democratic. Why? Most observers believe that women think the Democrats more
strongly support "women's issues," such as equal work, equal pay, and equal legal rights.
("What Factors Shape Political Attitudes?") Alongside gender, we can also observe the trends
associated with people of different religious backgrounds. Older studies dating to the late 1940s
generally show that Jewish voters are more likely to support Democrats than are Catholics or
Protestants. Catholics tend to be more liberal on economic issues (such as minimum wage and
taxes) than they are on social issues (such as abortion and divorce). ("What Factors Shape
Political Attitudes?") We can make sense of this as Catholics strongly withhold their values in
the belief of the Bible. Many see divorce and abortion as sinning, so that is why they tend to be
less liberal on social issues. One of the last, but not least important voting trend is that of people

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of different ethnicities or races. This is extremely relevant since we are now seeing a shift in the
political spectrum where it is now possible for nearly anyone of any race to become president, as
we saw for the first time with Barack Obama. The presidential candidacy is now more diverse
than ever. Were used to seeing the typical white male being president, but now that that trend
has stopped different, biases have arisensome of whom are justifiable. As a general rule, for
the past half-century African Americans have been the most loyal Democrats than any other
identifiable group. Latinos as a whole have a tendency to vote Democratic, but the relationship is
not as strong as it is for blacks. To further complicate matters, the various Latino groups have
very different voting patterns. Cubans and Venezuelans tend to vote Republican, while Mexicans
tend to vote Democratic. Another trend is that people on either coast tend to be more liberal than
those in the middle of the country. ("What Factors Shape Political Attitudes?") We like to think
of the people living in the middle of the country as being historically conservative because of
their beliefs incorporated around the agricultural industry and their voting trends. All of these
societal trends in America play a huge role in the outcome of every single presidential election.
I stated earlier in the paper that nearly 29% of Americans believe that their vote does not
matter, well they are wrong. In fact, in the 2012 election, nearly 23 million voters (49%) under
the age of 30 casted a ballot. (Youth Turnout: At Least 49%, 22-23 Million Under-30 Voted) It
proved to be the one of deciding factors in the nomination of Barack Obama. If we think about it
this way, 29% of the American population is nearly 100,000,000 people. If every one of those
people casted a vote the outcome of the 2012 election could have been much more different. The
mentality that every vote counts is true. So, when you hear someone say, I do not like any of
the candidates so I am going to vote approach and let them know that although you may not like
one of them, you must at least invest some of your time in getting to know them because one of

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them will be your next president. This sort of apathetic mentality is whats wrong with a large
portion of our eligible voters. If we can turn that mentality around we can make a larger impact
on the presidential elections.
You may be asking yourself, who or what are Liberals and Conservatives? Before we
begin, let me coin some political terminology out for you. Respectively, Liberal and
Conservative are nicknames given to Democrats and Republicans. The terms left and right
define opposite ends of the political spectrum. In the United States, Liberals are referred to as
the left or left-wing and Conservatives are referred to as the right or right-wing. First, I am going
to dive into the liberal political ideology. Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal
opportunity and equality for all. It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to
protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Believe the role of the government should
be to guarantee that no one is in need. Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the
government to solve problems. ("Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs.") So, in general, Democrats
like the thought of giving a majority of the power to the government.
Beyond a powerful government Liberals also tend to approach social topics (abortion,
death penalty, gun control, etc.) with the thought of fairness in mind, as stated by Garry
Patrick. Liberals believe a woman has the right to decide what happens with her body. A fetus
is not a human life, so it does not have separate individual rights. The government should
provide taxpayer funded abortions for women who cannot afford them. ("Conservative vs.
Liberal Beliefs.") They also believe that the death penalty should be abolished. [That] it is
inhumane and is cruel and unusual punishment. ("Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs.")
Democrats approach these social topics with a sense of empathy. You can see in these two
examples that liberals provide this fairness to the mother and the criminal. The mother is allowed

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to abort the child and the criminal charged with murder is allowed to spend time in jail instead of
serving the death sentence. Liberals tend to have this approach towards social topics. It complies
with their identity as many seek their main political goals to be social. For instance, as stated
earlier in the piece, in recent elections women have voted strongly Democratic [because] most
observers believe that women think the Democrats more strongly support "women's issues," such
as equal work, equal pay, and equal legal rights. ("What Factors Shape Political Attitudes?")
Republicans, on the other hand, believe in a laissez faire style of economics. What is
laissez faire? It is the attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering. What
we notice with Liberals is that they give power to the government to regulate our society and
economy. Republicans take power away from the government so that the free market system,
competitive capitalism, and private enterprise create the greatest opportunity and the highest
standard of living for all. Free markets produce more economic growth, more jobs and higher
standards of living than those systems burdened by excessive government regulation.
("Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs.") Republicans believe that if you can let the market be
reduced of unnecessary regulations businesses will boom and so will the economic sector. So,
Conservatives believe that the government should have less power so that businesses can
prosper.
Alongside a laissez faire government Conservatives support the idea that ones rights and
consequences on certain social topics (abortion, death penalty, gun control) will dictate the
outcome of that situation. Conservatives believe that human life begins at conception. Abortion
is the murder of a human being. An unborn baby, as a living human being, has separate rights
from those of the mother. Oppose taxpayer-funded abortion. Taxpayer dollars should not be
used for the government to provide abortions. ("Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs.") They also

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believe that The death penalty is a punishment that fits the crime of murder; it is neither cruel
nor unusual. Executing a murderer is the appropriate punishment for taking an innocent life.
("Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs.") After viewing these two examples we can see how
Republicans identity themselves towards social topics. Logic, instead of empathy is used for
reasoning. Although the fetus is not born yet, the fetus still has a beating heart and therefore it is
alive and considered a human being. Cases involving the death penalty are usually applicable
with criminals who have committed murder or another serious crime. Allowing the life of an
innocent person to not be acknowledge is criminal in itself, so Conservatives seek to find the
proper punishment for such a serious and devastating crime, which is the death penalty. In this
unempathetic-based approach more Republicans are being seen as logical thinkers because these
resolutions are a result of logic and order.
In an effort to see how biased voters think, I stumbled upon a test that aimed to test
whether or not voters feel a bias towards gender and its presence in society. I found this
interesting as it is relevant with what is occurring with Hillary Clinton and many women today.
The test was attached to an article and within that article I found an interesting piece of
information. It stated that, One experiment just found that Clintons gender could cost her as
much as 24 points against Trump among male voters, and 8 points overall. (Chemaly) This
statistic was surprising and Studies reveal that simply asking questions that raise issues about
challenges to traditional gender norms prime voters to feel threatened by powerful women who
violate those norms. (Chemaly) So, going back to the test, I found it to be straightforward. It
first began with a series of questions asking me about me geographical orientation and my
biological characteristics. After that followed a quick section. Where a name would pop up and
I had to answer whether it was E for male or I for female as quick as I could. The next series

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of questions was similar except I had to choose E for a leader or I for a supporter. The
examples were simple like Chief, Director, or Manager for a leader and Assistant and Aide for a
supporter. Next, the test switched the labels. Now E was for female and I was for male. The
whole process was repeated and slightly tricked me into choosing the wrong answer.
In the end, the data from the test suggested that I had a slight association of Female with
Supporter and Male with Leader. That was interesting, but when I came to think about it made
sense. Historically and since I have been alive I have only seen a male as president or my father
being in control of my family and its earnings. I believe my mind isnt geared to think that way
and I dont try to, but in an indirect fashion my mind has been trained to think that way. I believe
that most biases occur that way as well and that history has played a huge impact in our biases.
All in all, whether we think we do or dont, we all have some sort of bias towards something and
that is applicable to politics. Biases shape many voters decisions when casting their ballot for a
presidential candidate. Some biased Democratic voters will always vote for their partys
candidate and the same goes for Republicansthis is wrong and today we see this in many
young and uninformed voters. This needs to change. We need to have an open-minded society
that doesnt just look at the superficial logo (Donkey or Elephant) in front of the politician and
decide at that. We need to truly know our politicians and political party so that we can be
informed and be prepared to make the correct decision.

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Works Cited
Chemaly, Soraya. "Take This Test to See How Biased You Are Against Having a Woman
as President." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
"CIRCLE Youth Turnout: At Least 49%, 22-23 Million Under-30 Voted."CIRCLE RSS.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
"Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs." Student News Daily Conservative vs Liberal Beliefs
Comments. Student News Daily, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
Garry, Patrick M. Liberalism and American Identity. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 1992.
Print.
Jolly, Dave. "83% of American Voters Are Uninformed According to Poll - The Last
Resistance." The Last Resistance. N.p., 24 May 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
"What Factors Shape Political Attitudes?" Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association,
n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.