Ideology and You essays

Ideology and You essays The time is nearing to cast our votes in Americas most popular election: presidency. Topics ranging from war, economy, and healthcare fill our media and flood into our living rooms. Somehow while all the ideas and opinions are thrown around us, we find a nest and settle down. In other words, we build an ideology, or set of opinions that best describe how we want our government to run. Through the years, familiar ways of thinking were grouped and given names to describe an ideology. The most predominate in the United States are liberal, conservative, libertarian, and communitarian. But how do Americans come to be part of one of these ideologies? Traditionally, the political spectrum consisted of liberal and conservative opposite points of view. They were also labeled as left and right. The left being the liberal and the right is the conservative. Naturally, citizens are most familiar with the liberal and conservative views; however the definitions of the ideologies were of extreme liberals and extreme conservatives. Most individuals agreed with some views and disagreed with others according to particular topics. This landed many Americans somewhere in the middle of the scale. As a solution, less general ideologies were introduced that described what fell between the opposite extremes, such as libertarian, and communitarian. According to idealog.org, most Americans today are labeled communitarian, which is described as being an advocate for a collective way of living (Goodman and Janda 2002). These individuals take ideas from both liberals and conservatives that mostly benefit the whole rather than themselves. Texas, on the other hand is labeled conservative. Conservatives are mostly individuals who oppose government in topics such as business and economy, however encourage government on issues that deal with lifestyles. Although conservatives dominate the south, liberals are also abundant and want more government ...