0:00 hey there and welcome back to heimlich's
0:01 history now i've been going through unit
0:02 4 of the ap government curriculum and in
0:04 this video that means it's time to talk
0:05 about how our political beliefs change
0:07 as a result of generational and life
0:09 cycle effects so if you're ready to get
0:11 them brain cows milked then let's get to
0:12 it so in this video here is what we're
0:14 trying to do explain how cultural
0:16 factors influence political attitudes
0:18 and socialization if you saw the last
0:20 video we talked about the six main
0:21 factors that influenced the way we come
0:23 to hold differing political opinions and
0:24 the term for that is political
0:26 socialization and we mentioned families
0:28 schools peers media civic and religious
0:30 organizations and globalization all of
0:32 those factors affect the kinds of
0:34 political opinions that we hold so now
0:36 let's talk about another factor that
0:38 influences political ideology namely a
0:40 person's generation and we'll talk about
0:42 life cycle effects which can cause a
0:44 person to change or modify his or her
0:45 political opinions so let's begin with
0:47 generational effects this basically
0:48 means that a person's voting behavior
0:50 and political ideology is very much
0:52 influenced by the generation into which
0:54 they're born so let's briefly consider
0:56 four major generations that are
0:57 consistently analyzed by political
0:59 scientists namely the silent generation
1:01 baby boomers generation x and
1:03 millennials now before i get into it i
1:04 should mention that everything i'm about
1:06 to say here is a generalization and that
1:08 in reality there is great variance of
1:10 voting behavior and political ideology
1:12 in each generation but here we're only
1:14 focusing on generalizations that can be
1:16 made so let's start with the silent
1:17 generation and this includes folks that
1:19 were born before 1945. they came of age
1:21 during the great depression in world war
1:23 ii and many of them were young adults
1:25 during the age of conformity during the
1:26 1950s and as such they tend to have a
1:28 high value on religious belief in church
1:30 attendance furthermore many folks of the
1:32 silent generation adhered to a social
1:33 order that attached rigid gender roles
1:35 to men and women thus the folks in this
1:38 generation are generally conservative so
1:40 this leaning led some of them to oppose
1:42 the great cultural upheaval in the 1960s
1:44 with the counter-culture movement of the
1:45 women's rights movement and the gay
1:46 liberation movement after all these
1:48 movements tore apart the cultural fabric
1:50 which these silence grew up with now
1:52 when it comes to foreign policy these
1:54 people grew up in the midst of the cold
1:56 war and thus generally supported
1:57 american intervention abroad in order to
1:59 stop the spread of communism notably in
2:01 the vietnam war also in general the
2:03 silent generation consistently votes for
2:05 candidates who style themselves as tough
2:07 on crime and terrorist which is
2:09 generally a conservative position and
2:10 one thing this generation can very much
2:12 not understand is the push to legalize
2:14 marijuana now why on god's green earth
2:17 would you hippies want to legalize that
2:19 wacky tobacco anyway as a group senior
2:21 citizens vote in higher numbers than any
2:23 other group okay now let's shift and
2:25 talk about baby boomers these are folks
2:27 who were born after world war ii up till
2:29 about the mid-60s the prosperity of the
2:30 50s combined with men and women
2:32 returning home from war meant that
2:33 people were making babies like mad and
2:35 so this is a huge generation they came
2:37 of age during the tumultuous 60s and
2:39 thus they learned to appreciate the
2:40 changes better than their parents and
2:42 that meant they were slightly more
2:43 liberal as a whole than the silent
2:45 generation though they still reliably
2:47 voted conservative then came generation
2:48 x who were born between the mid 60s and
2:50 1980s these were folks who grew up with
2:52 lots of divorce and were the first to
2:54 really use the internet as a generation
2:56 as a group they were slightly more
2:57 liberal than their parents in the baby
2:58 boomer generation partly because they're
3:00 more ethnically diverse than either of
3:02 the two previous generations that i've
3:03 spoken about then we get to the
3:04 millennials who were born in the period
3:06 1981 to 1986 and this group is even more
3:09 liberal than any of the previous
3:10 generations that i've mentioned
3:11 millennials are more ethnically diverse
3:13 than exers were which is to say
3:15 according to pew research about 40 of
3:17 this group is not white which is huge
3:19 compared to the silent generation which
3:20 was 79 white as a result of this
3:23 millennials have leaned hard into the
3:24 liberal policies of the democratic party
3:26 and they're more likely than not to
3:28 believe that racial discrimination plays
3:29 a big role in society they're more
3:31 favorable towards immigrants than the
3:32 previous generation and in general they
3:34 are more favorable towards what could be
3:36 considered more socialist policies with
3:38 significant government intervention now
3:40 i spent all that time explaining some of
3:41 these generational characteristics to
3:43 you to make this point the four
3:44 generations of today's adults fit into a
3:47 pretty tidy political pattern the older
3:49 you are the more likely you are
3:50 conservative and the younger you are the
3:52 more likely you are liberal since the
3:54 silent generation each succeeding
3:55 generation has become more liberal than
3:57 their parents and a good example of this
3:59 is a poll from pew research that
4:00 compared each generation's opinion on
4:02 conservative president donald trump's
4:03 performance you can see here that 46
4:05 percent of the conservative silent
4:07 generation approved 44 of boomers 36
4:10 percent of extras and 20 of millennials
4:12 said that trump was doing a good job so
4:14 classified into groups the four adult
4:15 generations range from conservative to
4:17 liberal and depending on what generation
4:19 you find yourself in you are more likely
4:21 than not to agree with this group's
4:23 political affinities so all that to say
4:24 generational effects can determine how
4:26 you think about politics but there are
4:28 also life cycle effects that contribute
4:30 to political socialization as well and
4:32 the idea here is that whatever stage of
4:34 life a person is in will contribute to
4:36 their political beliefs and behavior for
4:37 example if you were 18 years old and
4:39 casting your first vote during the 2020
4:41 presidential primaries you might have
4:42 been very attracted to a candidate like
4:44 bernie sanders who ran on a platform of
4:46 free college tuition at that stage in
4:48 your life that matters a lot to you
4:49 especially since college has gotten so
4:51 expensive and you're not interested in
4:52 paying for your ceramics degree until
4:54 you're 73 but those in the silent
4:56 generation who are not going to college
4:58 and have adult children and
4:59 grandchildren they don't care as much
5:00 about that and they're thinking like
5:01 yeah somebody has to pay for all of that
5:03 so they would in general be less
5:05 attracted to that proposal because of
5:06 where they are in their life but then
5:08 maybe you get married and you have kids
5:10 and at that stage in your life cycle
5:11 you're less interested in free college
5:12 tuition than you are in pre-k
5:14 legislation or lower taxes so you can
5:16 better care for your family and those
5:18 commitments might lead you to change
5:19 your voting behavior so the point is
5:21 political socialization happens as a
5:22 result of your generational membership
5:24 and it can change over time as you
5:26 progress through different stages of
5:27 life okay thanks for watching click
5:29 right here to grab view packet if you
5:30 need help getting an a in your class and
5:31 a five on your exam in may if you're
5:32 watching this and you're millennial and
5:33 you probably are then you don't need me
5:35 to tell you that subscribing is the best
5:36 way for you to let me know to keep
5:38 making these videos so i'll see you in
5:39 the next one heimler out
Chrome Extension