YouTube Transcript:
AP Gov 4_1 | American Attitudes about Government & Politics | NEW!

hey everybody welcome back today we're
diving to the heart of American
attitudes about government and politics
don't forget to smash that like button
it's kind of a
[Music]
tradition to kick off unit 4 let's talk
about different interpretations of some
core values it's a mix of shared
Traditions Customs beliefs and values
that provide some common ground for most
Americans we focus so much on ways that
Americans disagree with each other so
let's take this rare opportunity to
highlight some of the things that most
people people agree about including a
couple of ideals way back from the first
video of unit one first up is rule of
law the idea that no one no matter how
rich or how powerful should be above the
law it's the great equalizer so whether
you're a CEO or a person just struggling
to pay the rent the president or a high
school student everyone should be on the
same playing field when it comes to the
law the basic fairness of everybody
being equal before the law is something
that almost everybody believes in it's
like the Bedrock of justice that we all
stand on but let's be real I said should
be not is this can be one of those
frustrating ideals where everybody
agrees and yet we still fall short of
actually pulling it off next limited
government the Constitution established
a limited government that would only
have the power to do some things not
everything here's the thing basically
everybody regardless of their political
ideology believes the government
shouldn't be absolute or all powerful
like hey let's not give the government
unchecked Authority government is about
setting boundaries making sure that the
people in the federal government know
that their power has limits and that
sounds great until you remember that
there are huge disagreements over how
much power the Constitution delegated to
the federal government and how much it
reserved to the states and to the people
but so it goes as we shift to the next
Trio of values individualism equality of
opportunity and free enterprise the
agreement isn't quite as universal while
people largely agree on the broad
Strokes the detail Sparks debate first
is individualism think of this as the I
do my thing you do yours philosophy it
means that each person is responsible
for themselves you have the freedom to
make your own decisions and you have to
live with the consequences good or bad
however the way that people interpret
individualism certainly varies some see
it as complete self-reliance While
others argue that it still includes
plenty of shared responsibility towards
our fellow citizens next equality of
opportunity is the belief that everybody
should have an equal chance to compete
and succeed this can be described as
equality of opportunity but not equality
of result yet the debate is over what
exactly is included in the notion of
equal opportunity some argue that it's
about making sure everybody has the same
opportunities open to them While others
think that it requires government
actions to actively help some people
like in the debate over affirmative
action back in unit 3 lastly let's talk
about the US economic system which is
built on the principles of free
enterprise people have have the freedom
to choose what to buy and sell what
career to pursue now if I stopped right
there very few people would likely OB to
that you get to choose what to do with
your time effort and money and so does
everybody else but just how free should
our markets be how much regulation is
needed and even if markets aren't
perfect are we sure that government
action can improve outcomes or might it
make them worse while some argue for a
hands-off approach and putting the free
back in free entprise others believe in
a more active role for government and
Regulators so these core values provide
a foundation for how we view our
government and society and thinking
about them in this context might help
make some sense of some of the
disagreements we see in politics today
keep in mind that by and large people
want similar things people want to be
free to mostly do what they want for
people to be safe and for people to be
able to take care of themselves but
disagreement is more often the means
than the ends later in the we're going
to discuss political ideology and we'll
revisit how these core values affect the
worldview of conservatives liberals and
Libertarians all right well that's it
for this one until next time this has
been aloney production thanks again for
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the next video