The major political ideologies through which we as Americans adhere to are conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism, and social democracy and the one I personally abide by is that of conservatism. Conservatism is founded on Christian religious beliefs and fundamental moral and ethical values, as well as traditional family values as attempts to maintain social order, support individual freedoms and keep our government’s role as unobtrusive as possible. While I am not a hard-core Conservative, many of my beliefs, life decisions, view of the world, in addition to my political party affiliation are based on conservative values because conservatism reflects my personal religious beliefs, core, and family values.
A person’s choice of a political ideology is influenced by many personal factors such as religion, family, tradition, core values, and personal experiences. These factors can play a major role in the political ideology one will most likely follow and adhere to when making decisions as to a choice as to a choice of political party or deciding what political issues to support and defend or go up against. Conservatism is not a political ideology of censure, disapproval, or rejection, but rather one of moral and ethical discernment and protection of individual rights, liberties, defense, and moral/ethical core-values.
Conservatism reflects my religious and family view on life, society, and a sense of what is right and wrong. In my eyes to be a conservative means to be against abortion, believe in a limited government, be non-supportive of gay rights, stand for the death penalty, be in favor of free-marketing, and an assurance that my individual rights will always be protected. Conservatism holds true to my religious and traditional beliefs and views. My religious beliefs are based on solid Bible doctrine which has been passed on to me by parents, their parents, and the many generations that came before them. The social norms and values I adhere to are based on my religious beliefs. Together these values build my character and help guide me in my day-to-day decisions I make as well as all major decisions. Belonging to a political ideology that mirrors my beliefs, principles, and core values serve to help have a voice and take a stand in our society.
Yes, they may be pro free marketing but I believe the economy would be negatively affected if all businesses were like this. If all businesses were free markets, the government wouldn’t be able to tax the companies. Without taxes how else would we get out of debt? Or pay for public education, health insurance programs, or public safety? The answer to that is no one would pay for it. That would greatly quickly deteriorate what funding we have in those areas. Plus since many of the businesses make a ton of money, we’d be losing all the taxes that come from crazy rich people who have so much money that they probably don’t even know what to do with it. Which brings us back to how I somewhat differ from the conservative view of wanting to have a free market and wanting to cut taxes. In my opinion taxes are fine right now, I mean they aren’t completely horrible. Yes, they might not be at the price that many Americans would fancy them to be but taxes are there for a reason. We need them to ensure the well being of our country’s citizens. Conservatives don’t believe that. Another view that I do not agree with is not wanting new ideas and change in our government. I’m referring to supporting and wanting more diversity in congress, the judicial branch, the supreme court and maybe even in the position of our president. Even though today those groups are more diverse than ever before, conservatives aren’t very happy about it. Since they value traditional views so greatly they aren’t very used to change. When it does happen they have to accept it and tolerate it. But that does not mean that they are comfortable with it.
With this being said most of the people in these groups are very old in age. Which means they grew up in a very different generation where people shared extreme conservative views and beliefs. Thinking about what their parents used to tell them when they were younger, what kind of environment they lived in, what religion they had or still have. Their whole ideology was based off of what the government was like during their youth. What kinds of rules their parents had them follow. Or what kinds of rules their friend and friend’s parents had. This reminds me of myself since growing up in a hispanic/catholic household there were many rules and beliefs that were put into place that really influenced my political ideology now. As a little girl I was taught to do good in school, make good grades, believe in God, respect your elders, and many more things. Growing up I was educated in what abortion was and being hardcore catholics they always told me it was wrong in every way and of course I agreed and I still do. My aunts would hear stories on the news about how people wanted to make abortion illegal and they would always mention how it would be a good idea to do so. Or when it came to the death penalty despite my mother and father being catholic, they do support it. And when they saw that someone was being given the death penalty my younger self would always hear them say “they deserved it.” Which is what I believe to this day as well. All the people that were convicted of homicide got what was coming to them in my eyes since that is what was taught to me by my parents due to their views. Since they have been around for all of my life, they’re the ones who greatly influenced the political ideology I lean closer to. Although they had conservative views, they weren’t 100 percent conservative either. If anything I’d consider them to be moderate conservatives. I say this because they had liberal views too such as believing that gays were entitled to rights and the right to love eachother but not had the right to get married. They thought this way since in the bible it says marriage should be between a man and a woman. This is what almost all my family saw as right. Believing that though kind of leans both ways The conservative side of that would be that they do not believe that they’re entitled to joining together in marriage due to the fact that that goes against what the bible says but the nonconservative side to that would be that in their opinion they do see it as okay to have some rights such as the right to love the same sex. And all their lives they were told by my grandparents to not condone anything that goes against the word of the Lord. I mean of course they knew that a person could never be perfect but they could get close. In general they just were strong believers of the bible and their religion. With those ideas and traditional views they passed it on to my parents and my parents passed it onto to me. Honestly though my grandparents’ values were a lot more conservative than mine are. If you ask me I’d consider them to be 100 percent conservative but I’m pretty sure it was because they lived through an era where most people were 100 percent conservative. In that time they were either for one side or another, hardly ever in between.
