POLITICAL SCIENCE

Political Science

Political Science

We have many different types of people in the United States. There are no two people that are alike. Every single person has different opinions and has different beliefs. People have different opinions of many various ideas. Two people might have dissimilar opinions, even though they might agree on other opinions. Beliefs are just like opinions, different people believe in different things. We the people of the United States have certain names we give people for their opinions and their beliefs politically. The politicians see people as conservatives and liberals. The conservatives and liberals are used in characterizing the political attitudes of an average American. According to James Q. Wilson, author of American Government, "liberals and conservatives are a way in explaining or justifying their preferences for candidates or policies" (Wilson, page 73). I will be describing what "Liberals" and "Conservatives" mean in the United States today, and to what extent these terms are useful in characterizing the political attitudes of the average American.

One of the two different types of people we have in the United States government in a political standpoint is Liberals. Liberals are people who favor a more active federal government for regulating business, supporting social welfare, and protecting minority rights, but who prefer less regulation on private social conduct (Bryant, page 2). In other words liberals are people who are in favor of the government getting involved in their actions. We have different types of liberals in the United States. There are not a lot of people who are liberal or conservative on all the issues. There are people who have liberal beliefs on a certain issue, but they have conservative beliefs on another issue "Though the average citizen cannot be described as being purely liberal or purely conservative, bear in mind that political activists often do display a great deal of attitude consistency. In other words, if they are liberal on one set of issues, they are likely to be liberal on all others" (Wilson, page 75). One type of liberal is Pure Liberals. Pure Liberals are people who are liberal on both economical and social issues (Bryant, page 2). Some liberals might be liberal on just economical issues or social issues, but pure liberals are liberal on both issues. Pure Liberals want the government to reduce economic inequality, regulate business, tax the rich heavily, deal with crime by addressing its economic causes, protect the rights of accused criminals, allow abortion on demand, and guarantee the broadest possible freedoms of speech and press (Bryant, page 4).

Another group of people whom we have in the United States are the Conservatives. Conservatives are people who favor more limited and local government, less government regulations of markets, more social conformity to traditional norms and values, and tougher policies toward criminals (Lakoff, page 23). In other words conservatives are people who want the government not to get involved in their affairs. Just like we have Pure Liberals, we have the same with ...