hey there and welcome back to heimlich's history now we'll be going through unit 4 of the ap government curriculum and in this video that means it's time to talk about the ideologies of the two major political parties of america the republicans and the democrats so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked party style well then let's get to it so in this video here's what we're trying to do explain how ideologies of the two major parties shape policy debates okay so that means before we start talking about individual parties we need to understand political ideology political ideology is an interlocking set of ideas that form the basis for political decision-making and although what i'm about to say is a simplified version of reality political ideologies basically follow along a spectrum between liberal and conservative ideology now conservative ideology emphasizes traditional social structures and existing structures of authority conservatives tend to emphasize limited government and public affairs strong stances on crime and punishment and champion states rights over federal power or to say it another way conservatives look at what exists and say if it ain't broke don't fix it liberal ideology on the other hand emphasizes civil rights for the marginalized and supports the efforts of social justice movements to ensure that everyone has equal access to civil liberties additionally liberals tend to emphasize government involvement in public affairs which would include care for the poor and regulations on businesses and intervention in the economy or to say it another way liberals look at what exists and says uh it is broke so let's fix it now there's a third ideology you should know namely libertarian ideology but we're gonna look at that in another video for our purposes here we're just sticking to conservative and liberal ideology okay let's turn the corner and talk about the two major political parties in america and how they align with the ideologies we just talked about the republican party often referred to as the gop or the grand old party most closely aligns with conservative ideology and the way that you know that is by looking at their party platform which is a set of policy goals published by the party which tells you the kinds of legislation they would pursue should their candidate win an election so if you look at the republican platform you can see conservative ideology dang near everywhere here in the section on the economy they say government cannot create prosperity though government can limit or destroy and that is a conservative belief get the government out of the economy deregulate businesses and let the free market take care of the economy in the section on what a constitutional government should look like they say this about the family traditional marriage and family based on marriage between one man and one woman is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values so again there you have conservative ideology reaching backwards to establish traditions and seeking to uphold them if any broke don't fix it additionally the republicans when it comes to social programs style themselves as the party of personal responsibility so it's no surprise to see that reflected in their platform in the section about social welfare programs by making welfare a benefit instead of an entitlement our policies put millions of recipients on a transition from dependence to independence and the republicans also regard themselves as tough on crime for example they say to honor the sacrifice of police officers we recommit ourselves as individuals and as a party to the rule of law and the pursuit of justice so i only gave you a sample of the platform but you can see that republicans generally hold to conservative ideology okay now let's have a look at some of the examples of liberal ideology in the platform of the democratic party and honestly you really only need to look at the table of contents to see the liberal ideology in this platform look here and you see they want to level the economic playing field they want to do that by ending poverty and breaking up corporate concentration here you have universal affordable quality healthcare which would of course require significant government intervention under healing the soul of america the democrats want to fight for women's rights lgbtq plus rights disability rights indigenous tribal nations etc so just with the perusal of the table of contents you can see the liberal ideology that animates the democratic party but there's probably no better example of this in the platform than the preamble where it says americans believe that diversity is our greatest strength that protest is among the highest forms of patriotism in other words it is broke so let's protest and fix it okay so you have a sense of how each party's platform is informed by either conservative or liberal ideology but i need to say one more thing about all of this don't make the mistake of putting an equal sign between the republican party and conservative ideology or between the democratic party and liberal ideology the reality as always is a little more complex some republicans consider themselves conservative on some points but more liberal on others and vice versa with the democrats so you just need to get it in your mind the direction that each party leans and you'll be fine as long as you remember that the party is not an exact synonym for the ideology okay thanks for watching click right here to grab my review packet to get an a in your class and a five on your exam in may no matter what ideology you subscribe to i am here to help so if you want me to keep making these videos then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige heimler out