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Political Views

Tea Pence
General Psychology
Mr. Funke
April 10, 2021
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For this assignment, I decided to talk about a topic that’s beneficial for everyone

to learn more about. Today, in the United States, we have two main parties that people

like to put themselves in. There is the Democratic Party ( the left), which, “believes in

government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all,” then there is the

Republican Party ( the right), which, “believes in personal responsibility, limited

government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong

national defense.” As new ideologies are being formed, this is causing the Democratic

party is grow rapidly, which in turn is making the Republican party to decrease. In the

United States, most teens are considered liberals, while the older generations are

considered conservatives. Conservatives are perceived as trigger happy, country folk,

while Liberals are perceived as LGTBQ, crazy, and opiniated.

From an outsider’s perspective, they’re seeing how we’re all divided. The United

States, is a country that allows people to have freedoms better than other countries, and

this allows for certain things to happen. In other words, we’re more likely to have riots,

shootings, protests, etc. From an article, called How Americans are perceived by the

rest of the World, they asked people what they thought about America. In the beginning

of the article they asked people to describe the United States in one word and one

person said, “Probably capitalism, but I see it more as freedom… that every person can

do what he wants, when he wants… “ Towards the end of the article, the asked people

to explain their experiences that they had while they were in America, and someone

stated, “There is a lot of misconception about their politics…”

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In the next step of this assignment, I decided to interview one of my old

classmates, Olivia Marner, who is a liberal. My first question was, ‘Can you give me a

brief summary of your political views?’

Liv; “ I’m really invested in gun control, equal rights, increasing education funding, and

environmental protection.”

My next question was, ‘What challenges do you have to overcome?”

Liv; “ I don’t think I have a whole lot of challenges to face. I think it’s hard being liberal in

a conservative area, but only in the aspect of it being hard for me to respect the people

I’m around.”

Then I ask, ‘What would you change about the US government?’

Liv; “I would change a lot, but I’d like to focus on the biases and built in systematic

oppression. The US government is great and freedom is great, but when native

Americans are being pushed off their land and given no supplies to live, it feels as if the

government isn’t adhering to all people. I think I’d also change term limits, we shouldn’t

have 80 year olds deciding legislation for kids.”

Finally, I finished with asking, ‘Why do you care so much about politics?’

Liv; “I think that everyone should care about politics. I get frustrated when people say

that it doesn’t affect them, or they just don’t like it. I understand that, however it shows

how entitled people can be. For me, politics is the pathway to a better future. We should

all be involved in our state legislature and we should all know what the government is

doing.”
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I consider myself as a Republican. I like to stay with the traditional values, but I

also understand where liberals come from on some occasions. When liberals talk about

gun control, I completely understand. I’d want them to make sure that someone who is

unfit to be in possession of a gun doesn’t have one, but for them to try to go as far as

taking away our 2nd Amendment doesn’t sit right with me. When I interviewed Olivia, I

agreed with her on most of her opinions, and I think this is where people get off on the

wrong foot. People are quick to judge someone just because of their political views,

which isn’t right, and this is what causes the divide among the two parties. Going

forward, I would like to think about things differently, and not be quick to shut someone

down, in a subtle way.

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Works Cited

AP, CBS News, “How Americans are perceived by the rest of the world,”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-americans-look-to-the-rest-of-the-world/ April 11,

2021

The Editors, Student News Daily, “Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs,”

https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/ April 11, 2021