Arielle Gottlieb

period one
10/25/14
In America, all opinions, ideas, morals, and religious views have the right to be heard.
When people use those things to create their political opinions it is called a political ideology; the
two main political ideologies in America being Liberal and Conservative. Liberals tend to
support ideas such as free and fair elections, civil rights, freedom of the press, freedom of
religion, free trade, and private property, while Conservatives promote traditional values in
cultures and civilization. Most people are somewhere in between. Political ideologies are not an
issue in America, but rather a crucial aspect of American culture which allows people to express
their beliefs and morals while participating in politics.
Ideologies allow Americans to come together because of their common beliefs or
disbeliefs, but everyone falls differently on the spectrum. Barack Obama, who is a credible
source because he has to appeal to both parties, shows that political ideologies are not specific
about everything when he states We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we dont
like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states We are one people, all of us
pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes (Document 4). Contrary to the belief of Bill Bishop,
who was never actually a journalist but a businessman, when he states that Americans are living
with the consequence of self-segregation which has made our country so polarized that
people dont know and cant understand those who live just a few miles away, people are not
defined ideologically by where they live, only by their morals and values (Document 3). Moris
Fiorina, an American political scientist and co-author of the book Culture War? The Myth of a
Polarized America, argues that the idea that America is in the midst of a Culture War, a
struggle between two or more sets of conflicting cultural values, is incorrect and American

citizenry has grown more centrist on such issues and more tolerant of the divergent views, values
and behavior of other Americans (Document 2). Political ideologies have not caused a culture
war because the extent of peoples political ideologies are varied.

Americans are divided almost perfectly as far as red and blue are concerned, which takes
away the possible threat of one side ruling over the other. This can be seen in the map by Jesus
Diaz, which gives one red dot for every republican and one blue dot for every democrat in an
area. Most areas are a gradient of purple meaning there is a mix of political views (Document
12). The Electoral college results shows that most elections are fairly close, like in 2000, when
George W. Bush won with 271 electoral votes over Al Gores 266, or four years later When Bush
beat John Kerry (Document 11). This balance makes sure that no party is ruling over the other
and everyones values, to a certain extent, are represented.

James Q. Wilson states that The intensity of political division is a major problem, and
a divided America encourages our enemies, disheartens our allies and saps our resolve
(Document 1). Wilson provides no evidence of his statement and does not realize that Conflict
is at the core of our politics, and the Constitution is designed to manage it, stated by Richard
Stengel who studied at Princeton and Oxford University and is stepping down from his role
Times managing editor to become Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public
Affairs for President Barack Obama's cabinet (Document 8). The Constitution allows and even
encourages deep arguments about the most basic democratic issues, without them Americans
would be a mindless people blindly following the opinions of others without having the chance
to be objective (Document 8).

A document showing what America would like without ideologies would be helpful,
because it would show that without them peoples opinions and beliefs would begf not
represented. It would also show that without them political candidates would either have the
exact same appeals because no one has any differing opinions, or that everyone had their own
separate opinions and beliefs similar to few others causing candidates to have no possible appeal.
Without political ideologies Americans could not be properly represented. The Culture War
feared by those against the existence of political ideologies is merely a fear of different opinions,
morals, and beliefs. Political ideologies are not an issue in America because peoples opinions
are varied, there is a roughly even split between ideologies so none can become tyrannical, and
the constitution is built to handle them.