The two major ideologies you will hear about in the united states and that’s the liberal ideology and the conservative ideology, the liberal ideology is often associated with the democratic party and the conservative ideology is often associated with the republicans. political parties in the United States
Every Republican would have a Stereotypically Conservative view on every issue
But be very careful this does not mean that every democrat will have a stereotypically liberal view on every major issue or that every republican would have a stereotypically conservative view on every issue we’re all individuals and many of us will have different opinions on these issues and might lean conservative on some and might lean liberal on others but just to get a sense of what liberal and conservative tend to mean in the united states on issues that you will hear about let’s go through this list of issues and I encourage you to stop reading this blog and have your own go at what do you think would be the liberal or the conservative viewpoint on each of these issues
Abortion a liberal
so let’s start with arguably one of the most contentious issues in the united states and that’s abortion a liberal would view this as a reproductive rights issue they view this as the right of a woman to choose what to do with her body so they tend to be pro the right of a woman to have an abortion to choose to have an abortion and will self-label themselves pro-choice conservatives, on the other hand, will often view this as a life issue that they view the developing fetus as a life and like any life has certain rights and so they would typically be against abortion and would self-label themselves pro-life affirmative action is another contentious issue
this is the idea we’ve talked about in other BLOG that proactive measures should be taken in order to address wrongs of the past or in order to address inequality today or discrimination today and it often takes the form of a race to be considered a part of admissions into saying higher education liberals tend to be in favor of affirmative action while conservatives tend to be against it the liberal point of view is yes we have a very unequal society
Crime and Shootings in the United States
there’s a lot of discrimination race should be considered a factor in order to ease that discrimination a conservative today might argue wait a second we want to be a racially blind society and so we do not want race to be a factor gun is another very contentious issue liberals will often cite guns as a major factor in a lot of the crime and shootings in the united states
and they would tend to be pro-gun control conservatives, on the other hand, will often cite the second amendment the right to bear arms and they would say look this isn’t when we see mass shootings or crime it’s not a gun issue there are other issues at play and so they would be more pro-gun rights they would generally be against gun control and want more rights for gun owners on a related note on crime liberals tend to view it as a social issue what are the underlying causes say poverty or something else that is causing crime they would also be very concerned with defendants rights citing examples were certain ethnic groups certain races might be disproportionately accused or disproportionately punished conservatives, on the other hand, tend to favor tougher policing and tougher laws saying that okay it’s interesting to look at the social issues and yes we do need certain rights
Tougher policing and Tougher laws
but at the end of the day you don’t want to be too easy on crime so tougher policing and tougher laws moving into the economic sphere the liberal view on taxes is generally that it’s okay and some liberals will even view it as a tool for building social equality they would say hey look if someone’s got to pay for something maybe it should be the rich they can afford to pay more and it’ll help level the playing field a little bit and so okay especially on and I’ll put the rich in quotes because different people would have different standards for what it means to be rich and conservatives generally are not okay with taxes they would say that it is a disincentive to work they would say that it’s friction on the economy they would say that it would reduce investment that could create jobs the liberal and conservative views on spending is related to that on taxes.
A stereotypical view of liberals
A stereotypical view of liberals is that hey they might like to tax especially on the rich and then spend it, especially on social programs okay especially on social programs maybe the welfare system or free health care these would all be things that a liberal point of view would be more likely to support a conservative viewpoint is not okay with government spending that the government should be as small as possible and spend as little as possible perhaps the only exception or one of the few exceptions would be except on military spending except on military where conservative might be in favor of more spending there in order to have a strong and muscular military now related to this idea on the size of government is that of regulation liberals tend to be in favor of regulation especially if they’re in regards to things like preserving the environment conservatives tend to be against regulation saying that okay maybe some baseline regulation is okay.
Harder to Start a Business
but it needs to be minimal because the more regulations you have once again these are frictions on the economy it makes it harder to start a business it makes it harder to grow it makes it more expensive to do things so they tend to be against regulation last but not least and this is just a survey of some of the big issues you will hear about the united states is the military.http://wikkipedia
Military issues
and I already touched on it a liberal is likely to want a military but they would probably want something that does just the base services of what you would expect from a military if people are invading our borders the military is there to protect us so maybe we could call it basic military while a conservative would say hey you can’t get complacent even if we’re at a time of peace even if people haven’t crossed our borders in a long time you don’t know what’s around the corner look at history there are all sorts of complacent societies that eventually get overrun and so they would want a strong and muscular military and they’ll make the argument that the stronger your military is perhaps maybe the less likely that you would have to use it because people would not even want to mess with you they wouldn’t even want to think about messing with you if you have a strong and muscular posture
so I’ll leave you there on these general ideas and once again these are stereotypical views you will meet many people including yourself who might have a mix of these views, for example, it would not be too difficult to find a democrat who for example might be pro-choice but against affirmative action who is pro-gun control who is maybe someplace in the middle here on crime who is economically conservative who’s not okay with taxes who wants them to be as little as possible who is not okay with government spending who’s maybe middle of the road on regulation and maybe they like a strong muscular military and likewise you could find republicans who similarly have a mix of viewpoints.