4.3 & 4.4 - Political Ideology

Which of the following best describes a trend in the data?

• The older the respondents, the more likely they are to identify as patriotic.

• Generation X respondents are more likely to be politically active than the Baby-Boomer respondents.

• Baby Boomer respondents are the most likely to consider themselves self-reliant.

• The younger the respondents, the more likely they are to identify as religious and moral.

One of the principal effects of 9/11 was instilling in Americans a fear that their personal security was at greater risk than ever before. Many aspects of the post-9/11 world are indeed new, but the fear it evokes echoes that felt by prior generations. At times the country has met those fears while still holding fast to its core democratic principles. Other times, fear has overruled American principles, especially the protection of individual freedoms. The most important legacy of the American experience following 9/11 will not be the novelty of fear, but rather how well the country copes with that fear while adhering to its constitutional framework.

Given how searing the 9/11 experience was, it is sometimes hard to remember that prior generations of Americans didn’t always sleep soundly either. Pearl Harbor is an often-cited example, but it joins many other moments of intense fear in U.S. history. During the 40-plus years of the Cold War, American school children practiced “duck and cover” drills the way today’s kids might practice school lock-downs. As a teenage in the 1980s, I joined Sting in hoping we could avert a nuclear holocaust if “the Russians love their children, too.”

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, other threats in the United States soon appeared: the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, to name just a few. During the 1990s, some in the military liked to refer to the United States as a “homeland sanctuary;” after 9/11, many talk about the end of that sanctuary.

True, the country has experienced fewer external threats to its population than have most other nations. But it’s a misconception to think that the American sense of external threat is new.

-Kathleen Hicks, “What Will Americans Do About Their Fear of Terrorism?” The Atlantic Monthly, 2016.

Which of the following best explains how the passage relates to the political process?

• Attacks on United States soil can mobilize the public to act and demand changes to the public policy process.

• Public opinion plays an important role in the development of new security measures to protect the United States from internal and external threats.

• There are important political and cultural events that can cause the development of lasting political beliefs across groups of people in society.

• Citizens judge political leaders on how they react to the internal and external threats faced during their time in office.

One of the principal effects of 9/11 was instilling in Americans a fear that their personal security was at greater risk than ever before. Many aspects of the post-9/11 world are indeed new, but the fear it evokes echoes that felt by prior generations. At times the country has met those fears while still holding fast to its core democratic principles. Other times, fear has overruled American principles, especially the protection of individual freedoms. The most important legacy of the American experience following 9/11 will not be the novelty of fear, but rather how well the country copes with that fear while adhering to its constitutional framework.

Given how searing the 9/11 experience was, it is sometimes hard to remember that prior generations of Americans didn’t always sleep soundly either. Pearl Harbor is an often-cited example, but it joins many other moments of intense fear in U.S. history. During the 40-plus years of the Cold War, American school children practiced “duck and cover” drills the way today’s kids might practice school lock-downs. As a teenage in the 1980s, I joined Sting in hoping we could avert a nuclear holocaust if “the Russians love their children, too.”

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, other threats in the United States soon appeared: the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, to name just a few. During the 1990s, some in the military liked to refer to the United States as a “homeland sanctuary;” after 9/11, many talk about the end of that sanctuary.

True, the country has experienced fewer external threats to its population than have most other nations. But it’s a misconception to think that the American sense of external threat is new.

-Kathleen Hicks, “What Will Americans Do About Their Fear of Terrorism?” The Atlantic Monthly, 2016.

The passage is most related to which of the following concepts?

• Political partisanship

• Political socialization

• Political ideology

• Political polling

Which generation group is most likely to oppose a protest of national symbols or ceremonies?

• Silent

• Boomer

• Generation X

• Millennial

Which of the following best describes how the generations view themselves in regards to the idealistic trait?

• Millennial respondents are the least likely to consider themselves idealistic.

• Each group is less likely to identify as idealistic as they get older.

• Baby-Boomer respondents are more likely to consider themselves idealistic than Generation X respondents.

• Silent Generation respondents are the most likely to consider themselves idealistic.

One of the principal effects of 9/11 was instilling in Americans a fear that their personal security was at greater risk than ever before. Many aspects of the post-9/11 world are indeed new, but the fear it evokes echoes that felt by prior generations. At times the country has met those fears while still holding fast to its core democratic principles. Other times, fear has overruled American principles, especially the protection of individual freedoms. The most important legacy of the American experience following 9/11 will not be the novelty of fear, but rather how well the country copes with that fear while adhering to its constitutional framework.

Given how searing the 9/11 experience was, it is sometimes hard to remember that prior generations of Americans didn’t always sleep soundly either. Pearl Harbor is an often-cited example, but it joins many other moments of intense fear in U.S. history. During the 40-plus years of the Cold War, American school children practiced “duck and cover” drills the way today’s kids might practice school lock-downs. As a teenage in the 1980s, I joined Sting in hoping we could avert a nuclear holocaust if “the Russians love their children, too.”

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, other threats in the United States soon appeared: the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, to name just a few. During the 1990s, some in the military liked to refer to the United States as a “homeland sanctuary;” after 9/11, many talk about the end of that sanctuary.

True, the country has experienced fewer external threats to its population than have most other nations. But it’s a misconception to think that the American sense of external threat is new.

-Kathleen Hicks, “What Will Americans Do About Their Fear of Terrorism?” The Atlantic Monthly, 2016.

The experience of those who lived through 9/11 needs to create which of the following outcomes, according to the author of the passage?

• Citizens should not let their fear of another terror attack override the country’s ability to adhere to the civil liberties protections outlined in the Constitution.

• Citizens need to acknowledge that the 9/11 attack was a unique event and work to develop a new strategy to combat future terror attacks.

• Citizens have to be willing to sacrifice some civil liberties in order to protect the country from future terrorist attacks.

• Citizens can rely on the government to develop plans to protect them in the event of a future attack on the United States.

An important change in political culture since 1950 is that United States citizens have become

• more likely to believe that their actions can influence government policy

• more trusting of nongovernmental institutions and leaders

• less trusting of governmental institutions and leaders

• less supportive of school integration

• less likely to think of themselves as ideologically moderate

Of the following, the most important role in the political socialization of children is played by

• their peer groups

• their places of worship

• the family

• the media

• the school

The Supreme Court addressed the admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote for the court, “in the context of its individualized inquiry into the possible diversity contributions of all applicants, the Law School's race-conscious admissions program does not unduly harm nonminority applicants.” The primary issue of controversy in the Grutter v. Bollinger decision involves

• national supremacy

• judicial review

• selective incorporation

• affirmative action

Which of the following applications of affirmative action would the United States Supreme Court likely consider unconstitutional?

• A company actively recruits women and minorities in its hiring practices for a federal contract.

• A state university refuses acceptance of any new applicants from a specific race.

• A university values racial diversity on its campus and considers race as one of many factors when considering applicants to its freshman class.

• The United States Department of Transportation hires a contractor with a history of hiring and promoting minorities and women for the construction of an interstate highway.