Analysis of Ideology in America Written by Ellis and Stimson - Book Report/Review Example

 Ideology in America Ideology in America, a book authored by Christopher Ellis and James Stimson, attempts to shed light on the system of governance that Americans generally prefer. What do Americans desire from their government? Is it a government that intervenes in economic affairs to control the market forces? Or is it a government that practices non-intervention? Do they desire a government that steps in to promote traditional way of social life, or would they support a system where the government allows the society to regulate and adjust itself on controversial moral issues? These are just some of the fundamental questions that inform the arguments presented by the authors of this book. While a considerable number of experts hold the opinion that American society is conservative, an equally good number of experts find it to incline more towards liberalism. This book endeavours to understand this contradiction of opinions. In this review, I argue out that Ellis and Stimson are convincing in their assertion that ideology in America is symbolically conservative but operationally liberal. The challenge of classifying American society into either conservative or liberal stems from paradoxical nature of the public opinion. Ellis and Stimson attach this difficulty to the duality of opinion that seems to emanate from this population. For instance, American public symbolically portrays itself as conservative in cherishing the symbols of conservatism. This has the implication that citizens are likely to describe themselves as conservative rather than as liberal. As a matter of fact, the “conservative” tag has been used for 70 years, and increasingly so since the early 1960s. On the other hand, by taking the operational dimension, this same population wants the government to carry on and commit itself more in solving a number of social problems and economic issues. Some of the issues in the economic dimension include government spending, income equality, taxes, and benefits that accrue to the poor and needy in the society. In general, the above issues raise question relating to the right role and scope of the government. Ellis and Stimson are convincing in their argument by asserting that the American public may be described based on two facets: Symbolically as conservative, and operationally as liberal. Noteworthy is the categorization of symbolic conservative into two large groups. They describe the first group as being “conflicted conservatives” who subscribe to liberal policy tastes across the board. The other group is conservative identifiers who only conservative opinions on culture and traditional moral grounds, but liberal opinions on the rest of the issues. Through a radical study of 7,000 survey questions that date back to 1956, Ellis and Stimson found out that liberal responses by far outnumbered conservative responses on questions relating to government intervention on different policy areas. This static has remained significantly true ever since 1956. As such, the authors managed to separate symbolic and operational ideology by emphasizing the drawbacks and erroneous conclusion that is bound to occur when a research limits itself to only self-identification as the standard of ideology. A radical view into the American society in relation to the recent policy views all seem to add weight to the arguments made by Ellis and Stimson. The American society has remained deeply divided in a number of glaring policy issues. Starting in the political arena, the two main political outfits are Republicans and the Democrats. The Republicans are generally viewed to support conservative ideologies whereas the Democrats have a tendency of being more liberal. However, there exists a thin line of separation between the two outfits when it comes to theirs stand on various social and political issues. In the recent campaign to pass laws in support of gay’s rights, the democrats came out fully fledged in support of the rights of this group. As a matter of fact, some states have already entrenched these rights into their laws. President Obama has equally spent a great deal of time in support of this law. On the other hand, Republicans have remained sceptical about passing such a law and insist on traditional definition of marriage – as being between two people of the opposite sex. Taking into account the economic dimension, Americans generally call for intense government intervention on a variety of issues. Both Republicans and Democrats seem to agree on the need of government intervention although they may differ on the extent and the nature of such intervention. The idea of government involvement in healthcare has particularly been controversial as there are liberalists Americans who were in favour of the Obamacare. On the other hand, those in favour of conservatism, while not necessarily agreeing to the Obamacare strategy, they still find it to be in good interest of the American citizenry for the government to significantly intervene on matters pertaining to the access of health care. This position clearly supports the ideas of Ellis and Stimson who have been vocal on the aspect of citizens’ need for the government to intervening on several matters affecting the society. In regard to operational conservatism, it is evident that Americans support government actions that aim at addressing particular social needs since they enjoy the benefits that such an action provides. This is in relation to programs that seek to enhance the quality of education, minimize environmental pollution among many others that benefits all citizens. Therefore, liberal politicians normally anchor their appeals on grounds of specifics, because government intervention, presented in a manner that indicates how it will resolve given social needs, generally attracts monumental support. Undoubtedly, these policies are generally liberal, but the application of the label “liberal” is avoided. This is especially the case as Americans find the tag liberal as intrusive, reckless, and linked with elitism. On the other hand, conservatives have a tendency to criticise social programs on the sides by alluding that they are inefficient or administered inappropriately. However, a point worth noting is that these conservatives rarely criticize the benefits that accrue to the society through these social programs. The authors outline a number of reasons why the Americans have symbolically called themselves as conservatives yet operationally practised liberalism. Quoting directly from the book, the authors say that, “John Kennedy would not be the last liberal president. But he would be the last who would call himself a liberal” (Ellis & Stimson). Such a statement simply serves to indicate how Americans prefer to distance themselves from the tag of liberalists. Liberalism became very popular in 1960s when several laws were passed in the United States altering the social order that was part and parcel of America. It was within this time that civil unrest was the order of the day as blacks passed on the streets demanding for recognition of their rights as citizens of America. Since the events were covered largely in television, liberalist became associated with blacks and their actions of unrests. As such, the intrusiveness of the term complicated its popularity among the Americans. While most of the actions that liberal movement instigated were good for the social order, such a connotation became unpopular. The result was that Americans preferred to symbolically refer to themselves as conservative yet advocate for the policies of the liberalists. It is thus evident that when it comes to the American politics, or rather on matters pertaining to how liberal and conservative elites portray and stand in defence of their actions, a huge conflict of ideas exists between the conflicting parties. However, it is worth noting that this is done in ways that may not be easily perceived by the public. As argued out by Ellis and Stimson, ideological symbols, or rather conservatism, tend to dominate the political arena. But on matters pertaining to particular social programs and government expenditure, government actions to address particular social programs is encouraged. Therefore, if American citizens were asked what they hear in political activities, the answer would generally be the message of operational liberalism on one end, and the message of symbolic conservatism on the other end. Ellis and Stimson exploration on the ideology of America is unquestionably a representation of popular view on this discourse. Through vivid interpretation of the events that have characterised political debates, the authors effectively point out the readers that relying on self-identification as the basis to describe the ideology in America is misleading. This is can be described as the theory of preaching water yet on the other side drinking wine. Conservatism seems to sound better in the idea of most Americans as it is associated generally with traditions which Americans hold dear to them. On the other hand, liberalism is perceived as intrusive, and mostly associated with elitism. As a result, the ideology in America is to symbolically preach the message of conservatism yet, on the other hand, support the ideas of liberalism. The authors of the book Ideology in America have effectively argued that; when it comes to policy preferences, the numbers of liberals by far outnumber the number of conservatives. Further on, they posit that averagely 50 percent more liberals subscribe to liberal policy than those who subscribe to conservative policy. The bottom line of their arguments is that given an option of choosing between left and right patterns of government activities, the left will always carry the day. Recent events in the America’s political arena significantly add weight to ideas expressed in this book. First, it is evident that the tag liberal evokes unpopular feelings among many Americans thus explaining the reasons why a majority of them would rather not be associated with it. Secondly, while the conservatives are keen on criticising policies fronted by the liberalist on, let’s say there application, they generally support the social benefit that accrue from these policies. References Ellis, C., & Stimson, J. A. (2012). Ideology in America. New York: Cambridge University Press. Read More