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Jenna Baranski
WRT 1010
Bill Shea
Defining the Undefinable
In this day and age the world is quickly changing within politics. Each party within our
American political system has high demand for change. These demands include adjustments to
laws such as abortion, gun control, immigration, gay-marriage, taxes, health care, foreign policy,
and government regulations. The time that we live in is full of adjustments. If you were to
compare society today to society back in Abraham Lincoln's time you would see an abundance
of societal differences. In 1862, the time of Abraham Lincoln, the biggest societal struggle was
the issue of slavery. During this time, the word Republican meant declaring the Emancipation
Proclamation for freeing the slaves. In today's political arena things are different. Today, Donald
Trump is leading Republicans thinking he is going to build a wall to keep immigrants out of the
United States. During the time of segregation, the Jim Crow laws were passed by democrats. The
Jim Crow laws promoted racial segregation in the southern United States making it that African
Americans had no political power. Currently the head of the Democratic party is Obama who is
the first black president. The words Republican and Democrat have always tended to go along
with the terms conservative and liberal. These terms are the two mainstream ideologies in
American society today.
Being a part of a certain ideology in American culture insinuates you believe a particular
way on specific topics. On the topic of abortion liberals believe it should be legal. For liberals,
gun control is a necessity. The point of view taken on by liberalism encourages government
involvement in social, economic, ethical, and spiritual affairs. This means that liberals believe
that if the government controlled almost all aspects of life then our lives would improve. Liberals

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believe that by having the government make choices for us then there would be less controversy.
The controls they refer to are government making it illegal to carry a gun, and making getting
abortions legal. Taking on the political ideology of being a liberal also tends to define you as
encouraging equality for all people. Liberals want equality on the issue of health care, which
means that the belief is everyone should have health care no matter who they are. Obama passed
the Affordable Care Act under his presidency to ensure everyone had health care. His goal as a
liberal was to provide every American with health care no matter their situation or financial state.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary also defines the term liberal as not being bound by the widelyaccepted belief in society. Liberals are thought of as going outside of the traditional societal
norms. An example of this would be the acceptance of gay-marriage into mainstream society.
One hundred years ago, the political ideology of being a liberal had the opposite meaning. Being
a conservative one hundred years ago, meant believing in what liberals believe in today.
The term conservative is defined as holding strong to traditional values. Traditional
values are defined as beliefs, and moral codes that are passed down from generation to
generation. The traditional values that are encouraged are referring to no gun control, and lack of
government regulations. These things are traditional because they were in place when America
began. The political ideology that conservatism is today refers to less government control over
the lives of Americans. This means that conservatives believe that businesses, health care, and
taxes should be free from the government. Conservatives encourage more freedom in decision
making for their lives. The traditional values that conservatives believe in also refer to resistance
toward accepting new ideas. A new idea that is not accepted in this ideology is gay marriage.
Gay marriage is deemed as not traditional because it has not existed as an idea up until this point

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in history. Being a part of the conservative ideology today is very similar to the liberal side 100
years ago. The two ideologies seemed to have switched viewpoints over the past hundred years.
In the 19th century being a liberal meant fighting for economic, political, and personal
freedom. Liberalism during that time consisted of the traditional values that conservatives
believe today. Liberals wanted separation from a large, central government. There was an
emphasis on growing the middle class. During early liberalism Thomas Paine addressed the
government as a necessary evil. Conservatism, however, in the 19th century had a strong reliance
on their central government. There was a trust and a form of stability coming from it. During that
time period Conservatives believed in government control. Conservatives wanted to conserve the
politics they had with the monarchy. The strong government like a king and queen was
comforting. Today these terms fall in contrast to one another. What was once believed to be
liberal in the 19th century is now considered to be conservative. The definitions have altered
drastically in the past century. In the centuries leading up to the nineteenth being a part of the
conservative ideology encouraged a strong central government which is opposite of what they
believe today. Being a liberal back then thought that the government being involved in life was
bad for society. The beliefs of conservatives and liberals seem to have switched in the past
hundreds of years. This shows that the definitions of liberal and conservative have become
interwoven with politics. Defining these two words has now become defining ideologies. Two
words now define the political system; liberal and conservative.
The two mainstream political ideologies have immense impact on our culture. To define
yourself as either conservative or liberal is a very difficult thing to do because of the viewpoints
you accept. Talking about political ideology in society is not encouraged because of the emotions
people attach to them. The political arena today is extremely sensitive. In today's current political

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world everyone is focused on the 2016 presidential election. This election has the most media
attention in the history of the United States because liberals and conservatives are in complete
contrast. Regardless of whom is in office after this election there will always be controversy
amongst liberal and conservative beliefs.