Objective: Explain how cultural factors influence political attitudes.
Starter: What portion of your lifetime has the United States spent at war?
1.How accurate was your prediction?
2.What most surprised you about this chart?
3.How different would the answer be for your parents?
4.List two reasons the US has been at war so frequently during your lifetime?
5.What are two consequences of the US being at war so much?
6.Which of these wars have we won and which have we lost?
7.How has US warfare personally affected you?
8.What members of the White House and the executive branch are involved in planning and executing wars?
9.What would the typical US Republican and Democrat have to say about the amount of the last half century the US has spent at war?
10.We currently have a volunteer military - in which no Americans presently are forced to serve. If we abandoned this system, and instead, every American had to serve and fight in the US military, how would that impact our foreign and military policy and the frequency of warfare?
11.Is the investment in our current warfare worth the cost in lives, money, and international standing?
12.If you have spent your life in the United States, you have never lived in a country that was not at war. How has that impacted you and your generation?
13.Do you believe that Trump is likely to continue to keep us in a perpetual state of warfare?
14.What is the longest war America has ever fought?
15.What do you imagine the future of the US and war will be for the next 25 years?
16.Which of the wars we have waged during your lifetime do you believe have been worth fighting?
Recap: Explain how cultural factors influence political attitudes and socialization.
Review and Quiz Today: Political Culture and Socialization
Impact of Political Events on Ideology
The relative importance of major political events to the development of individual political attitudes is an example of political socialization. Let's think about some significant events in U.S. and brainstorm how they might alter how people think about politics and government.
2AB 4B
2AB 4B
Culture Wars
Below are some people's visualizations of the two Americas. Read about them here!
Is our polarization becoming so bad that we cannot find common ground on any issues today? Do opposing groups have irreconcilable moral differences such that compromise cannot be achieved?
Would you characterize a contemporary U.S. election as making a rational choice or tribal warfare?
Closer: Explain how cultural factors influence political attitudes and socialization.
On Deck
Next Topic: Measuring Public Opinion
Textbook Section 6.3 (pp. 171-180)
Textbook Section 6.3 (pp. 171-180)