Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Action
“Open book Quiz”
1. (Separate sheet of paper)
2. The seemingly elderly citizens of America do make quite an impression in
American politics. First of all, according to page 202 of the text, the elderly tend
to be more conservative, rather than the youth who tend to be liberal. Second of
all, according to the chart on page 194, the elderly tend to vote more on issues and
candidates than the younger Americans. With these two put together, the Elderly
seemingly over represent the conservatives, because most of them are
conservative and vote more frequently than the seemingly liberal youth. One of
the contributing reasons to why elders vote more frequently is the fact that they
don’t exactly have the capability to contribute in political participation actions—
especially if they demand a sort of physical activity. Lastly, you can sort of
summarize that the elderly affect their whole family by pressing their views onto
their family. For example, I know this personally, because when my 61-year-old
father gets anything near to a talk about politics, he not only talks, but also
vigorously debates and enforces his views into the poor person’s brain.
3. Political socialization is where the media, your family and friends, and school
help shape your views for politics. For example, for family, if your parents are
either liberals or conservatives, odds are, you’re probably going to end up with
similar views as they have; same with friends. Another example, this time for
mass media, is places like Fox News or CNN that combine their views with
entertainment. If not, maybe a Disney Channel show may incorporate subtle hints
of liberal-ism or conservative-ism. Lastly, now for school, teachers may teach you
new policies or ideals that help you form your own opinion, or they may even
teach you and persuade you to see the views they see on certain issues. Political
socialization happens all throughout your life, in one way or another.
4. Well, the first component needed for a poll is an issue to poll on. I’m pretty sure
that’s already self-explanatory, so I don’t need to explain that. Second, they need
a certain type of sample; there are four: sample, random sampling, random-digit
calling, and exit poll. Sample is pretty much just a small portion (In this case, of
American people) that gets tested (by survey) to represent a certain population as
a whole. Random sampling is still using a small population, but selecting people
randomly, so that every citizen has an equal chance of being selected as any other.
Random-digit calling is just calling any random phone number, registered or not,
and surveying them through the phone. Lastly is exit poll, which is where they
test you after you vote for a candidate. After gathering their information, survey
makers probably would make a graph for their data, or just keep it as is.
5. The roll of polls has aided Americans’ views by showing them that they’re not
alone, and that other people do support their view. The cold hard evidence of a
graph from a poll just seemingly reassures a citizen that they should be thinking
what they are thinking. The roll of polls, however, has also distorted views of
Americans. An example would be that when one sees that most people go for the
view that they oppose, they might give into peer pressure and change their views
to feel like they’re a part of a bigger crowd. Perhaps seeing the evidence that their
view is not supported, may make them deny their own view. Recent polls have
showed that most people aren’t even updated as much as they are with their most
recent favorite show. For example on page 199, it tells us how many people don’t
even know certain well-known locations in the world (in the map box).
Entertainment has taken up actions that make you “a good citizen”, like “being an
informed citizen”. (in the words of [Link].)
6. The four political beliefs that are likely to be preferred by liberals and
conservatives are: Foreign Policy, Social Policy, Economic Policy, and Crime.
Foreign policy is like using military to solve disputes between countries, or not.
Social Policy is on such issues like Abortion, prayer in schools, or affirmative
action. Economic Policy includes all things in the economy, such as taxes and
spending. Lastly, Crime is just a dispute on how to cut crime, and whether or not
we should defend an accused man by giving more defendants’ rights, or not.
7. First of all, Political Participation is a way to promote a certain candidate, or a
belief by doing any sort of action; such as protesting and conducting civil
disobedience. Protesting is “designed to achieve policy change through dramatic
and unconventional tactics.” (Pg 208) Civil disobedience “reflects a conscious
decision to break a law believed to be immoral and to suffer the consequences.
For example, on page 208, there shows three African American citizens protesting
segregation at a lunch restaurant, and suffering the consequences by sitting there,
having white teens pour miscellaneous mixtures upon their heads. I’m also sure
that a few years ago, I heard of a protest named “G20” in Toronto. It was to
protest the unjust way the G20 were treating the economy, robbing people of
money. (in Mr. Taylor’s words, of course.) I don’t know much about that.
8. A conventional type is where there is no violence or disruptive behaviors/actions
towards the other citizens. A non-conventional type is one that is disruptive. As
said on page 208, the only unconventional way to politically participate is to
protest. Protesting is “designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and
unconventional tactics.” (Pg 208) However, it didn’t quite specify for civil
disobedience—so I assumed that the conventional form. Civil disobedience
“reflects a conscious decision to break a law believed to be immoral and to suffer
the consequences. (Pardon my non-use of a chart. It’s all here in words.)
9. Non-violent civil disobedience was one of the most effective techniques of the
civil rights movement in the American South because them being non-violent
allowed photographers to show the nation how it was wrong (hence the picture on
page 208) and it also gave the others no reason to NOT support what they’re
protesting for (because they didn’t physically harm by being violent). Not only
did the rest of the nation see the horrible treatment of people peacefully
conducting civil disobedience, one cannot help but finally get hit with reality that
racial discrimination WAS, in fact, wrong. It’s like feeling bad for a little kid
that’s being pushed around or teased, because he doesn’t fight for himself.
10. What political scientists mean when they say that Americans are ideological
conservatives but operational liberals, is that they think and have views like a
conservative, but physically act like a liberal. It happens! Especially people our
age, because a lot of us feel the pressure in trying to fit in—and since the chart on
page 203 proves that young people tend to vote and be more liberal, the rest of us
abide (except me and Eleanor, of course.). It makes complete sense in what the
political scientists are saying. To be “operationally liberal” is to say things like: I
feel that we should be nice and not buy weapons. Liberals are generally nice,
merciful people—and we all want to act like that.