0:00 hey there and welcome back to heimlich
0:01 history now we've been going through
0:02 unit 4 of the ap government curriculum
0:03 and in this video that means it's time
0:05 to talk about how political ideologies
0:07 affect policy making so if you're ready
0:09 to get them brain cows milked well then
0:10 let's get to it so in this video here's
0:11 what we're trying to do explain how u.s
0:13 political culture for example values
0:15 attitudes and beliefs influences the
0:17 formation goals and implementation of
0:19 public policy over time or a simpler way
0:21 to say it is this how do our ideologies
0:23 inform the kind of policy we make if
0:25 you'll remember in the last video i
0:26 talked about the differences between the
0:27 characteristics of conservative and
0:29 liberal ideology and i won't rehash that
0:31 here but for now we just need to talk
0:32 about how people who hold those
0:34 ideologies get laws passed that reflect
0:36 their beliefs and probably it goes
0:37 without saying but hey i'm going to say
0:39 it anyway that the policies that are
0:41 made into law here in america reflect
0:43 only the beliefs of the people who
0:45 actually vote all things being equal if
0:47 more people who hold liberal ideology
0:49 vote we're going to have more liberal
0:50 policies and vice versa with
0:52 conservative ideology okay so with that
0:54 established let's consider two debates
0:55 and two laws that illustrate this point
0:57 first is the ongoing debate over making
0:59 english the official language of the
1:01 united states just about every year
1:02 conservatives in congress propose such a
1:04 policy and every year it dies now
1:06 conservatives want to do this because
1:07 they believe it will unite americans of
1:09 all backgrounds and then additionally
1:11 they argue that such a law would save
1:13 billions in federal and state spending
1:15 as it stands hospitals are mandated to
1:17 provide translators for patients who
1:18 need them many schools must hire
1:20 bilingual teachers and counselors and
1:22 some states spend millions out of their
1:23 election budgets to print ballots in
1:25 several languages and it's true a
1:27 nation's language is one of the most
1:28 powerful cultural artifacts to bind
1:30 people together in a shared heritage
1:32 however liberals reject the idea of
1:34 making english the official language
1:35 because they see it as a tool of
1:37 oppression and in some cases straight up
1:39 racist and precisely because language is
1:41 such a powerful cultural artifact
1:43 liberals argue that to require
1:45 immigrants to learn english at the
1:46 expense of their native language is
1:48 tantamount to an erasure of their
1:49 cultural heritage now this debate has
1:51 been going on for decades and it waxes
1:52 and wanes depending on not surprisingly
1:54 the numbers of immigrants entering the
1:56 nation however up till now it has been
1:58 just a debate and no official policy has
1:59 been passed either way but it is a good
2:01 illustration of how ideology affects and
2:03 informs policymaking the second debate
2:05 is related to the first namely the
2:07 debate over multiculturalism versus
2:09 assimilation the idea here is whether as
2:11 americans we should embrace
2:13 multiculturalism which values and
2:14 upholds the distinct cultures of the
2:16 people that live here or whether there
2:18 exists a normative set of american
2:20 cultural values that all americans
2:21 should assimilate to and this debate has
2:23 a long history going all the way back to
2:24 the u.s policy concerning american
2:26 indians in many cases during the process
2:28 of westward expansion american indians
2:29 were given the choice to be displaced
2:31 from their land or assimilate to
2:33 american culture which in those days
2:34 meant to speak english dress like
2:36 americans and embrace christianity etc
2:38 etc and those debates are still
2:40 happening today liberals tend to
2:41 champion multiculturalism while
2:43 conservatives push for assimilation and
2:45 the crux of this debate is whether or
2:46 not there are a set of universal
2:48 normative american values by which every
2:51 american should be measured
2:52 conservatives tend to say yes liberals
2:54 tend to say no okay those are two
2:55 examples of ideological debates that
2:57 have so far not resulted in concrete
2:58 policy but now let's consider two
3:00 examples of policies that illustrate how
3:02 ideology makes its way into law first on
3:04 the conservative side we can consider
3:06 the personal responsibility and work
3:07 opportunity act of 1996. this was a law
3:10 addressing welfare policies which
3:11 provided government funds to the poor
3:13 ever since the policies of lyndon
3:15 johnson's great society the welfare
3:16 state in america was significantly
3:18 expanded and this was a triumph for
3:20 liberalism but starting in the 1980s
3:22 conservatives got all kinds of twitchy
3:23 about this legislation because as they
3:25 argued the system of welfare trapped the
3:27 poor in a cycle of poverty the
3:29 conservatives argued like this if the
3:30 poor were receiving welfare benefits
3:32 they had no incentive to go to work and
3:34 that just means that they would sit at
3:35 home while big daddy government paid all
3:37 their bills and so a
3:38 republican-dominated congress passed the
3:40 personal responsibility and work
3:41 opportunity act which limited welfare
3:43 payments to five years and the result
3:45 was that the numbers of those on welfare
3:46 dropped precipitously and conservatives
3:48 considered this a win because to them it
3:50 reasserted the american work ethic and
3:53 now let's consider how liberal ideology
3:54 resulted in legislation and for this
3:56 we'll consider the dream act which
3:58 addressed immigration and more
3:59 specifically the situation of immigrants
4:01 who entered the country illegally but
4:03 were minors that means their parents
4:04 immigrated illegally but obviously the
4:06 children had no choice in the matter the
4:08 dream act aimed to create a set of
4:09 criteria through which those minors
4:10 would not be deported but could become
4:12 american citizens and initially this
4:14 legislation was somewhat bipartisan but
4:16 not surprisingly it was more favored by
4:17 liberal democrats the bill was
4:18 introduced several times but it never
4:20 passed republicans wanted stricter
4:22 immigration limits in return for their
4:23 cooperation but democrats weren't
4:25 willing to bend on that one but despite
4:27 the failure of the bill president obama
4:29 a democrat took matters into his own
4:30 hands and issued an executive order to
4:32 address the situation basically the
4:34 executive order made the deportation of
4:36 these immigrant minors impossible and
4:38 that essentially accomplished the same
4:39 thing but the problem with executive
4:41 orders is that when there is a new
4:42 executive new orders can be made case in
4:44 point president trump who styled himself
4:46 tough on immigration rescinded this
4:48 order and removed many of the
4:49 protections offered in the dreamers
4:51 program so all in all you can see how
4:52 ideology shapes the kind of policy that
4:54 we end up with and that policy is always
4:56 going to reflect the ideology of the
4:58 people who actually vote okay thanks for
5:00 watching click right here to grab view
5:01 packet which is going to help you get an
5:02 a in your class and a five on your exam
5:04 in may no matter what your ideology i
5:05 want to keep making these videos to help
5:07 you so if that's what you want to then
5:08 you can cast your vote by subscribing to
5:10 the channel and i shall oblige heimler
5:12 out
Chrome Extension