Values, Beliefs, and Political Participation

Values, Beliefs, and Party Registration

  • Understanding voters: Their values, beliefs, and party registrations influence their voting decisions.
  • Party line voting: Most people tend to vote along party lines.

Course Logistics and Assignment Details

  • Upcoming videos: Discussion of democracy in chains and a disturbing video by Bill Moyer's journal.
  • Assignment format: Follow the specified format for assignments, including spelling out names and titles.
  • Required information:
    • College name: Central Oregon Community College.
    • Class: Political Science (or PS 201).
    • Term: Spring term 2025.
    • Date.
    • Title: Chapter number, study guide, and chapter title.
    • Data sheet: Title of the data.
    • Video summary: Title of the video.

Values in American Culture

  • Values, beliefs, and attitudes: These influence opinions and are fundamental to understanding ideology.
  • Creating a list of values: Asking questions or making statements to gauge agreement or disagreement.
  • Ideological alignment: Classifying beliefs and values as liberal or conservative.
  • Preamble to the Constitution: Contains five values that lean in a specific ideological direction.
  • Declaration of Independence: Emphasizes values such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Measuring Values and Attitudes

  • Empirical measurement: Values and attitudes can be measured using indicators (e.g., poverty rate).
  • Duplication of values: Some values are reiterated across different contexts.
  • Influence on behavior: Values drive how we think, feel, and act.
  • Agents of socialization: Family, education, religion, and media shape our values from an early age.
  • Developing personal values: Evolving one's own beliefs and opinions over time.

Civic and Political Participation by Gender

  • Analyzing participation: Examining civic and political participation based on gender.
  • Interpreting data: Using data to draw broad conclusions about gender variability in participation.
  • Specific examples:
    • Women are more likely to raise money for charity.
    • Men are slightly more likely to vote regularly.
    • Women are slightly more likely to volunteer.
    • Community problem solving: Similar participation rates between genders.
  • Persuading others to vote: Women are more likely to persuade others to vote.

Civic and Political Participation by Income, Age, and Education

  • Key variables: Analyzing participation based on income, age, and education levels.
  • Income: Higher income correlates with more involvement in civic and group activities.
  • Age: Civic activity participation is relatively stable across age categories.
  • Education: Higher educational attainment is linked to greater civic participation.
  • Communicating about political issues: More educated individuals are more likely to communicate online about political issues.
  • Being Active on Social Networking Sites: Higher Education = More activity online, High income = A bit more active online.

Traditional Political Participation Indicators

  • Traditional participation: Includes attending rallies, donating money, and attending political meetings.
  • Overall involvement: Generally low participation rates in traditional political activities.

Voting Participation: Congressional Elections

  • Midterm elections: Congressional elections held every two years.
  • Trends: Voter participation in midterm elections appears fairly steady with a slight downward trend.
  • Data limitations: Information is only available up to 2014.
  • Importance of current data: Campaigns require current voter data for strategy development.
  • Data Accessibility: This data is available in the public domain.
  • Campaign strategy: Polling on issues and voter history helps tailor campaign approaches (Bond measures, school districts, etc.).

Same-Sex Marriage

  • Legal Status: Same-sex marriage is legal based on a Supreme Court ruling.
  • Legal Basis: The ruling is grounded in the principle of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • Historical Context: Discussions of interracial marriage bans and their overturning on similar grounds.
  • Fourteenth Amendment: A key component supporting civil rights through equal protection under the law.
  • Civil Rights: the key is EQUAL PROTECTION under the Law.

Supreme Court and Public Opinion

  • Public Opinion Shift: Public attitude toward same-sex marriage shifted after the Supreme Court ruling.
  • Impact of Court Decisions: Supreme Court decisions carry potency and influence public opinion, affecting beliefs.
  • Key Amendments: Understanding the Thirteenth (freed slaves) and Fourteenth Amendments is important.

Social Mobility and Opportunity

  • Opportunity to get ahead: High optimism in America about getting ahead.
  • Catalyst for mobility: Education is the primary factor for upward social mobility.
  • Trade skills: Automotive careers as an alternative path to financial success.
  • Millennials: Increasingly out of reach (lower social mobility) for Younger generations.

Core Democratic Values

  • American values: High agreement on core democratic values such as government openness.
  • Public opinion: Use these values as points of conversation about public opinion.

Public Opinion and Influence

  • Congress and special interests: 80% believe Congress is influenced by special interests.
  • Structure of influence: Includes lobbyists, political action committees, and "the network". Structure of Influence = Lobbyists, Political Action Committee, Super PACs, the Network.
  • Dark money: Influence from unknown sources due to Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
  • Corporations as people: Controversy over corporations having the same privileges as citizens.
    Tax Law 2017-2018: Rich Benefit the Most

Economic Factors and the Middle Class

  • Benefit to the rich: Two-thirds believe the rich benefit the most from the current system.
  • Tax law: Review Tax law 2017-2018 shows rich benefit the most.
  • Middle class: The exploding phenomenon of the middle class occurred between World War II and 1980.
  • Middle class collapse: Middle class is collapsing.
  • Definition of Middle Class: Important to clarify when politicians talk about the middle class.
    Congressional Salary
    Are the salaries too high?

Third Party Candidates

  • Potential for third parties: Essentially none (zero).

Public Opinion on Government

  • Equality: 91% agree (very important for women to have the same rights as men).
  • Equality: 42% Agreed (country hasn't gone far enough to for women's equality.).

Racial Groups: Fair Treatment

  • Blacks: Feel that they get the lower side/don't get fair treatment.
  • Key issue: Gerrymandering affects fair voting access, especially after striking down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
  • Texas Law: You can't see feed somebody standing in line for three hours and give them food or water.

Trust in Government

  • Federal government: Lower trust compared to state and local levels.
  • Local government: Higher trust due to closer proximity to citizens.
  • International Comparison: The United States has low trust in government.
  • Switzerland and Scandinavian Countries: Highest amounts of trust.

Knowledge

  • Branches of Government: In 2021, '50 '6 percent of the adults in The United States could identify all three branches of government.
  • Obamacare / Affordable Care Act: The Affordable Care Act wasn't clear known by Americans.
  • Current American Mindset: Elected officials don't care about ordinary people.

Violence

  • Government: Violence Against the American Government is sometimes okay.
  • Republicans: 40% agreed with that statement.
  • Democrats: 23% agreed with that statement.
  • Independents: 38% agreed with that statement.
  • Congressional hearings: Due to congressional hearings person or two (Republican Party) ejected from participation in the party.

Exit Poll Data: 2020 Election

  • Party Line: Party line held up in the 2020 election.
  • Legitimate Election: 61% said yes the election was legitimate while 35% Said No.
  • Election System/Safety: The election system is extremely safe. (MIT Study indicates the probability of fraud is like zero).
  • Fraudulent election focus: Started back in 2015 with constant messaging.
  • Democratic party: 44% of the public view the Democratic Party favorably.
  • Republican party: Favorable about the same as previously measured.
  • The Sort: what Bishop talked about in the sort.
  • Messaging: Focused on the election was fraudulent, that started back in 2015. (From "Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler")