Christian Mussenden

Pd.1 October 25th, 2014

Ideology Essay
In America, there are two main ideologies that are prominent in our society. Liberalism
and Conservatism, with the Democrats representing Liberalism and Republicans supporting
Conservatism. The differences in political ideology have led to a government shutdown, an
inefficient congress, and the creation of two radically different cultures. The differences in
political ideologies have lead to a decrease in political moderation, a tyranny of the majority, and
the cultural division of the nation.
The majority of the population of the United States has started to cling to a certain
political ideology. In recent years, the majority of demographics have been voting for a certain
political party. According to an exit poll conducted by CNN spanning the presidential elections
from 2008 to 1988 (Document 10), the majority of the major demographic groups (Black, White,
Men, Women, 65 years or older, and Non-White (including hispanics)) have continuously voted
for the same political party time and time again with the percentage of voters increasing over the
past 20 years. The rising percentage of specific demographic groups allegiance to specific
political parties shows that demographics are starting to cling to certain political ideologies.
Demographics favoritism among the political parties have become an issue because now it leads
to parties monopolizing on certain demographics votes. James Q. Wilson elaborates an intense
commitment in a candidate, a culture or an ideology has set people in one group definitively
apart from people in another group. (Document 1). This document shows that people are
becoming more and more loyal to their ideology, which has lead to a decrease in moderate
voters.

According to Bill Bishop, people are starting to live near other people who share their
political The places we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think and
vote like we do (Document 3) When you put into account that people live near other people
who share their political views, areas with a high population density start to become more and
more geared towards one political ideology. Document 12 shows a graph that represents the
population density and their political affiliation. The graph shows that conservatives live near
each other in the more isolated areas of the nation, where the electoral points arent as high. The
graph show that liberals live around more population heavy areas such as cities, they tend to live
in states with higher electoral votes, which translates to their votes holding much more weight.
The denser the population, the more likely they are to vote democrat. This turns into the
Democratic party winning over the states with higher electoral votes. The democratic party
winning over the states with the higher electoral points has lead to a tyranny of the majority in
the nation. The majority of the population votes democrat according to Document 12, and the
past two elections have been victories by the democratic party, as well as three out of the past
five. Ideological differences have become a major issue for the nation because now the nation is
looking on a scenario where one political party could rule the nation for years to come, and then
a bulk of the population would be ignored.
The two political parties that dominate our system are indeed as different as can be. It has
even become humorous to the population as demonstrated by a political cartoon by David
Horsey from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Document 5). The cartoon shows the difference
between the Red Americans and the Blue Americans. Although the political cartoon
obviously exaggerates both sides, it does show that democrats do favor a government with a
bigger role in our everyday lives while republicans prefer a less involved government. It is easy

to dismiss this cartoon off as satire, but Pew Researchs study titled Beyond the Red vs. Blue:
The political Typology (Document 7) shows that democrats and republicans have very different
views on the major issues that face the nation. For example, 70 percent of liberals believe the
government should control guns and their distribution, while 86 percent of staunch
conservatives believe the government should protect the right to own guns. This trend follows
many other issues, such as gay marriage (84 percent of liberals support, 72 percent of
conservatives oppose) and energy policy priority (88 percent of liberals believe we should find
alternative sources, 72 percent of conservatives believe we should expand coal, and oil
exploration). This different opinions of the political parties in the nation have lead to the two
opposing sides not being able to collaborate, creating a culturally divided nation.
The different political ideologies have led to a government shutdown, a tyranny of the
majority, and a decrease in moderate voters. In order to further support my claim, A document
stating which areas are more supportive/ against the major policy issues (i.e. gun control, energy
policy, etc) would be helpful because then i could prove that different areas are in support of
certain policies, then I could compare it to document 12 and show a connection between the how
population density of certain areas and their political affiliation affect the areas views on certain
policies. Different political ideologies have created nothing but trouble for the nation, the
opposing views of the parties have lead to large groups of people clinging to one ideology over
the other and the creation of two completely different cultures.