YouTube Transcript:
IDEOLOGIES of Political Parties [AP Gov Review_ Unit 4 Topic 7 (4_7)]

hey there and welcome back to heimlich's
history now we'll be going through unit
4 of the ap government curriculum and in
this video that means it's time to talk
about the ideologies of the two major
political parties of america the
republicans and the democrats so if
you're ready to get them brain cows
milked party style well then let's get
to it so in this video here's what we're
trying to do explain how ideologies of
the two major parties shape policy
debates okay so that means before we
start talking about individual parties
we need to understand political ideology
political ideology is an interlocking
set of ideas that form the basis for
political decision-making and although
what i'm about to say is a simplified
version of reality political ideologies
basically follow along a spectrum
between liberal and conservative
ideology now conservative ideology
emphasizes traditional social structures
and existing structures of authority
conservatives tend to emphasize limited
government and public affairs strong
stances on crime and punishment and
champion states rights over federal
power or to say it another way
conservatives look at what exists and
say if it ain't broke don't fix it
liberal ideology on the other hand
emphasizes civil rights for the
marginalized and supports the efforts of
social justice movements to ensure that
everyone has equal access to civil
liberties additionally liberals tend to
emphasize government involvement in
public affairs which would include care
for the poor and regulations on
businesses and intervention in the
economy or to say it another way
liberals look at what exists and says uh
it is broke so let's fix it now there's
a third ideology you should know namely
libertarian ideology but we're gonna
look at that in another video for our
purposes here we're just sticking to
conservative and liberal ideology okay
let's turn the corner and talk about the
two major political parties in america
and how they align with the ideologies
we just talked about the republican
party often referred to as the gop or
the grand old party most closely aligns
with conservative ideology and the way
that you know that is by looking at
their party platform which is a set of
policy goals published by the party
which tells you the kinds of legislation
they would pursue should their candidate
win an election so if you look at the
republican platform you can see
conservative ideology dang near
everywhere here in the section on the
economy they say government cannot
create prosperity though government can
limit or destroy and that is a
conservative belief get the government
out of the economy deregulate businesses
and let the free market take care of the
economy in the section on what a
constitutional government should look
like they say this about the family
traditional marriage and family based on
marriage between one man and one woman
is the foundation for a free society and
has for millennia been entrusted with
rearing children and instilling cultural
values so again there you have
conservative ideology reaching backwards
to establish traditions and seeking to
uphold them if any broke don't fix it
additionally the republicans when it
comes to social programs style
themselves as the party of personal
responsibility so it's no surprise to
see that reflected in their platform in
the section about social welfare
programs by making welfare a benefit
instead of an entitlement our policies
put millions of recipients on a
transition from dependence to
independence and the republicans also
regard themselves as tough on crime for
example they say to honor the sacrifice
of police officers we recommit ourselves
as individuals and as a party to the
rule of law and the pursuit of justice
so i only gave you a sample of the
platform but you can see that
republicans generally hold to
conservative ideology okay now let's
have a look at some of the examples of
liberal ideology in the platform of the
democratic party and honestly you really
only need to look at the table of
contents to see the liberal ideology in
this platform look here and you see they
want to level the economic playing field
they want to do that by ending poverty
and breaking up corporate concentration
here you have universal affordable
quality healthcare which would of course
require significant government
intervention under healing the soul of
america the democrats want to fight for
women's rights lgbtq plus rights
disability rights indigenous tribal
nations etc so just with the perusal of
the table of contents you can see the
liberal ideology that animates the
democratic party but there's probably no
better example of this in the platform
than the preamble where it says
americans believe that diversity is our
greatest strength that protest is among
the highest forms of patriotism in other
words it is broke so let's protest and
fix it okay so you have a sense of how
each party's platform is informed by
either conservative or liberal ideology
but i need to say one more thing about
all of this don't make the mistake of
putting an equal sign between the
republican party and conservative
ideology or between the democratic party
and liberal ideology the reality as
always is a little more complex some
republicans consider themselves
conservative on some points but more
liberal on others and vice versa with
the democrats so you just need to get it
in your mind the direction that each
party leans and you'll be fine as long
as you remember that the party is not an
exact synonym for the ideology okay
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