The purpose of this research is to examine political attitudes in light of the chapter on public opinion in Wilson and Dilulio's American Government. The plan of the research will be to set forth the background and context in which personal political attitudes have emerged, and then to discuss being a liberal versus being a conservative, the areas of life that have influenced formation of these attitudes, and the degree to which ideology has influenced political thinking.
It is somewhat ironic that certain immigrants are asked to declare one's personal political attitudes in light of a discussion of the role of public opinion in America. That is because I grew up in the Soviet Union while the Cold War was in force. As Armenian, I had a certain second-class status, both formally and informally. In 1987 my parents and I emigrated to the U.S. This was before the fall of the Soviet system. And thus America, where public opinion is a natural part of political culture, was vastly different from Armenia. There, political culture was independent of public opinion.
According to the chart on page 133 of American Government, my views are mainly liberal. This does not mean that I agree fully with every little detail of liberal beliefs. For example, consider the issue of aid to Russia: It should be increased only if the Russian government guarantees the rights of the people. As someone who grew up under a Russian government that did not guarantee these rights, I consider it very important to make sure that aid will not simply go to the powerful elites of the "new" Russia. But in the USSR, the communist elites had "a disproportionate amount of some valued resource" (137). In fact, they had disproportionate amounts of all valued resources. The turmoil of Russia today--even after USSR collapse--shows that this situation may not have changed very much. Thus on this issue I am closer to the conservative view, against aid to Russia. But the reason ...