2.  What message is this ad attempting to send to the viewer? Does this change your opinion of Hillary Clinton? If so, how? If not, why not?

3.  Constitution designed to LIMIT public opinion and how they could influence the government. Institutions like federalism and checks and balances designed to inhibit public opinion.  Government designed to achieve broad goals and preserve liberty, not necessarily do what people want  Does “public opinion” reflect only those really interested in politics?  How do we know what public opinion is?

4.  What does it take to measure public opinion?  Reliability and validity  Saliency  Unbiased questions  Significant numbers & unbiased samples  Informed public

5.  Do people know what the issues really are? Can the “average voter” tell you what is in a piece of legislation?  Polls can be manipulated with relative ease to possibly obtain a pre-determined result based on how a question is phrased.  Public Opinion easily swayed by events or how events are framed in the media  What matters-What is known or how people feel?

6. 1. Intensity- strength of position 2. Fluidity- ability to interpret position 3. Stability- extent to which public opinion stays constant 4. Relevance- extent to which an issue is of concern at a particular time 5. Political knowledge- the more active and knowledgeable someone is about politics 6. Diversity-How do you get diverse sample? 7. Direction-positive or negative

7.  What is political socialization?  The process by which children learn about values, beliefs and attitudes of political culture.  What forces shape our political socialization?

8.  Are we “brainwashed” in terms of the right or wrong opinion to have?  Family (Parents) tend to be the best source and foundation of early political knowledge and opinion for most people.  Family has been weakening as a source for decades, however, due to greater access and control of information  Divergence from a family’s ideology, if it does occur, tends to begin around college.

9.  Tends to reflect social status (Where people are located in terms of class and power)  Catholics and Jews more liberal along with African- American churches (Methodist and Baptist, generally) as those immigrant groups were traditionally poor and would benefit from government programs favored by liberals  Rich churches (Generally Protestant) preaching to richer congregations tend to preach a more Conservative message, economically and socially  What a religion tends to emphasize, social justice or social values, tends to be MOST important

10.  Emphasizes a fundamentalist (literal) interpretation of Christianity and the Bible.  Deeply opposed to abortion, gay marriage and support school prayer  HUGELY influential coalition within Republican Party via from 1980s to 2000s  Mobilized voters and fundraised at grassroots, church-level  Still highly influential in Republican Party

11.  The idea that men favor one party and women favor another  Men tend to favor Republicans and Women favor Democrats due to difference on issues like gun control and health care.  Was HUGELY decisive in 2012 as Obama won the women’s vote; However, Obama won single women and Romney won married women but the former voted in higher numbers in key states.

12.  President Barack Obama won the two-party vote among female voters in the 2012 election by 12 points, 56% to 44%, over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, Romney won among men by an eight-point margin, 54% to 46%. That total 20-point gender gap is the largest Gallup has measured in a presidential election since it began compiling the vote by major subgroups in 1952.

13.  On balance, greater education leads to greater liberal views, especially at elite schools. Elite Schools are MOST liberal (Ex. Harvard, Williams, UNC) and those with higher degrees (Ex. PhD) tend to be more politically liberal  People with more education are more informed and university students tend to be taught and governed by more liberal professors and administrators that favor intellectual freedom and diversity  Political Liberalism strongest in humanities and social sciences (Ex. English, Sociology)

14.  Class IS a strong dividing line as the poor tend to identify more with Democrats though strong majorities of Americans claim that they are “middle class.”  Race and Ethnicity: Minorities (African-Americans and Hispanics in particular) identify more strongly with Democrats  However, political leaders of these communities are more liberal politically than their racial group. Solid majorities of African-American oppose gay marriage but political leaders support it almost uniformly, for example.

15.  Region: Southerners, particularly white southerners, strongly identify with Republicans and oppose gay marriage and marijuana legalization. Coastal states (California, Massachusetts, etc.) deeply Democratic and feel otherwise.  Age: Young people more strongly identify with Democrats while the Elderly tend to identify as Republicans, since 2007.

16.  What is Political Ideology?  Coherent & consistent set of political beliefs about who ought to rule, the principles the rulers ought to obey, and what policies the rules ought to pursue.

17.  How do political scientists measure a person’s ideology?  Frequency of describing choices  Consistency of preferences over time  People can have strong dispositions even without these criteria.  Plurality crosses traditional borders…considers themselves “moderate.”  Americans are more polarized than ever and are viewing themselves as “moderates” less and less since 1964.  http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political- polarization-in-the-american-public/

18.  Early 1800s: Liberals favored personal & economic freedom from the gov’t. Conservatives favored restoration of power to traditional sources.  New Deal Metamorphosis: Liberals favored an activist gov’t. Conservatives favored reaction & prevention to this activism with states’ rights and individual economic choice.

19.  Today’s meanings are imprecise and changing.  Three useful categories in gauging political ideologies:  Economic Policy  Civil Rights (Ex. Gay Marriage)  Public & Political Conduct

20.  Definition?  Those with a disproportional amount of a valued resource  Other Characteristics?  Display greater ideological consistency  Have access to more info. & have more interest in politics  Peers reinforce this consistency

21.  Those advantaged by the power, resources, and growth of government  How is this different?  Examples of elites outside of government? Ideology? Source of power?  Directly benefit from the gov’t.  High levels of schooling

22.  Elites influence public policy 2 ways:  Raise and Frame political issues  State norms to settle issues & define policy options  Limits of influence  Don’t define economic, crime & other problems of personal experience  Elites contradict & limit each other