Why Our Values Are Our Values

Bailey Delcamp 

In this day and age it’s easy to become judgemental of those around you, in fact the ever increasing popularity of social media almost enables this behavior, making it easier than ever to do. What we so often forget, however, is instead of making immediate judgements, critically think about why a person may be acting or thinking a certain way. How someone's personal life and experiences have shaped them and their mindset because of it is an often overlooked detail, with people tending to over stress the idea of being politically correct and ostracizing those who don’t align with their views. Following this point I was interested in learning what factors seem to effect specifically America's views, and seeing how these trends are exercised in public legislation and law.

According to Isidewith.com, gun control, climate change, and immigration policies are among the most popularly debated issues. Now, the legislation on these issues, most likely due to gerrymandering, is often oriented with a specific political party. For instance members of the Democratic party are more likely to care about liberal issues, while Republicans closely watch conservative issues. This then poses the question, why do people align with one political party over another? The answer comes from many different factors a person experiences within their lifetime. Some of the most influential factors come from early childhood. In America political beliefs among children are highly influenced by their parents, with children of Republican identifying parents tend to express Republican views and the same for Democratic parents and their children, by the time they are eligible to vote. It is also suggested that more politically oriented parents with consistent views are more influential than those who don’t express such views. However, to a study in the Journal of Politics found that even though parents political views are extremely influential, they become less so as person ages and other possibly not previously present factors such as spouse political beliefs become increasingly more swaying. According to the study, for those aged 35, “The politics of a county, meanwhile, proved twice as influential as parental beliefs, and the politics of a spouse almost three times as influential….By age 50, a spouse’s political beliefs were by far the strongest influence on a person’s political identity,” (Jacewicz, 1). It was also stated that demographic plays a part in political alliances, according to the Pew Research Center, the more densely inhabited an area is, the more likely the area will align with the Democratic party. Therefore, if a person lives in a highly populated area for a substantial amount of time, their views are likely to become more liberal with time.

In conclusion, America's values are an ever changing and are often affected by countless, usually unthought of factors. The unrecognized factors indeed have a great influence upon an individual and cause them to believe certain things or act in certain ways. Therefore, these factors should be considered and examined before judgements are made, especially when opposing views of two individuals are compared.

Sources:

Jacewicz, Natalie. “What Shapes Your Political Beliefs at 18, 35, and 50.” The Cut, The

Cut, 28 Apr. 2017, www.thecut.com/2017/04/what-shapes-your-political-beliefs-at-18-35-and-50.html.

Jones, Bradley. “1. Trends in Party Affiliation among Demographic Groups.” Pew Research

Center for the People and the Press, Pew Research Center for the People and the

Press, 18 Sept. 2018, www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/.

“Most Popular Political Issues of 2018.” ISideWith, www.isidewith.com/polls/popular.

Vaccaro, Chris. “The Reason People Choose One Political Party over the Other.” Medium.com,

Medium, 22 Mar. 2018,

medium.com/@chrisvaccaro_78233/the-reason-people-choose-one-political-party-over-the-other-6d250ea825ec.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rE_8TmcBLmUfDkg25kpf2-YXBTti_UCm0p9B-B7BHTk/edit