Theme of the article
The survey report is based on the Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes between 1987 and 2007. Its main theme is that political landscape is more favorable to democrats and tries to bring out the factors that have improved the political landscape for the Democrats as the 2008 presidential campaigns were approaching. The main factors that were identified include the fact the democrats emphasize on addressing modern social concerns of safety, inequality and national security, unlike the republicans who continue to hold the traditional social, political and economic and religious values; indeed, the republican support has been wearing out in the recent years.
Positive impressions
All the parties – Democratic, Republican and Independent – are in agreement that the government has a primary obligation of eradicating poverty through extending support disadvantaged groups.
There is support for the government to continue aiding the poor using its resources, and where there is deficit, the government can borrow in order finance such programs.
The over-reliance on military action as a way of enhancing peace has decline, meaning that most people now prefer diplomatic solutions on international conflicts.
Critical impressions
The issue of aiding the poor has created over-dependency by some people on government support without taking any initiative to work hard on their own; this has led to the poor getting even poorer with time. In addition, financial aid to the poor has plunged the country into budget deficit and national debt, forcing the Republicans to criticize and oppose the idea of extending financial support to the needy. Indeed, it is ironical to find that the government is spending a lot of money to eradicate poverty while on the other hand poverty is escalating, with the rich continuing to become richer with time (The Pew Research Center, 2007).
There is less commitment by the global community on providing solutions to problems affecting the society. Many things are changing today, for instance, it is critical to find that, as time is going-by most Americans are loosening their religious tenacity and are now supporting the issue of homosexuality; there is an increase in the political differences in levels of religious commitment; and the religious commitment is highly biased on the Republicans side as it lowers on the Democrats side (The Pew Research Center, 2007).
Bias among democrats
There are a lot of biases on the side of Democrats especially in the views of corporations. The fact that the public is losing confidence on itself is worrying; leading to the conclusion that there will be great diversities in future in the way people will be making political decisions. In addition, there are traces of people moving away from reliance on the government as a source of help to their issues. Nevertheless, young people are continually holding a more favourable view of the government than any other groups of Americans. Surprisingly, the same young group is least interested in voting more than other Americans. On a different perspective, attitudes toward racism were found to moderate; there is positive attitude towards the programs that aim at helping the black Americans, women and the minorities.
References
The Pew Research Center. (2007). Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: Political Landscape More Favorable to Democrats.