Audra Shantel Bodily

Paper #2: Analyzing the Data of the Classes Political

Attitudes and Views

We live in a time where we have information at our finger tips so does

that mean that the people of the United States really know who is

representing them and what is happening in their government? The data that

was collected at the being of the semester helps us see what percentage of

our class knows who are representing them and where our views on certain

issues lie. There are some flaws with this survey for an example the group is

a relatively young class the average age being about 20 and then some of

the questions not everyone answered. Throughout this paper, I will be

discussing the political awareness of the students, their stances on different

issues, and why I think the class is either a liberal or a conservative.

Political awareness! Is it really important to be aware of what is

happening in our government? Some might say that there is really no point

because their views are shared among the minority. I believe that is good to

be aware what the government is doing and those who are representing you

in the government. When looking at the percentages from the survey I see

that most of the class does not know who represents them in the

government. When it comes to the President of the United States only 87%

of the class knew that it was Donald Trump. This is good especially since he

was just elected into office. I thought it would be higher though since he was

just elected. The knowledge on government representatives drop

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dramatically. 48% of the class knew that Mike Pence is the Vice-President.

26% could either Orrin Hatch or Mike lee as Utahs Senators. 10% of the

class could name either Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart, Jason Chaffetz, or Mia

Love as one of Utahs Four members in the House of Representative. Then

we had 35% who know Gary Herbert as Utahs governor. From the data we

can see that not even half of the class are aware of who is representing them

here in Utah. For a time where we have easy access to this information we

dont know a lot on the political side of things.

What are our stances on political topics as a class overall. When asked

if the United States should implement a more restrictive immigration policy

32% said yes and 52% said no. When asked if the United Sates should relax

the 1st amendment rights to fight terrorism 23% said yes and 65% said no.

When asked if law abiding citizens should be able keep and bear arms 81%

said yes and 10% said no. When asked if the Supreme Court made the right

decision in legalizing gay marriage 81% said yes and 13% said no. When

asked if physician-assisted suicide be allowed for terminally-ill patients if

they desire 84% said yes and 10% said no. When asked if the United States

should implement a system of universal health care for all citizen 68% said

yes and 23% said no. When asked if the United States should have a stronger

Military Stance toward Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Terrorist 52% said yes

and 39% said no. When asked if the United States should conduct

surveillance on its citizens through NSA 19% said yes and 68% said no. When

asked if the government should promote additional tax cuts to simulate the
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economy 42% said yes and 44% said no. When asked if the United States

should implement stricter rules dealing with emissions to reduce global

warming 71% said yes and 29% said no.

On the Information above we can see that the students have a wide

opinions on what the government should and shouldnt be involved in. So is

the class more Liberal of more Conservative? When the question was asked if

they considered themselves a Liberal or a Conservative? 39% said Liberal

and 19% said Conservative. As you can see that the percentage only adds up

to 58%. This leads me to believe that the other 42% had no Idea what it

meant to be a liberal or a conservative. So they just left the question blank.

When I look at how they answered the questions above about their stances

on certain political topics. I concluded that the class is split right down the

middle. Why I say this is because out of 10 questions 5 came up as

Conservative and 5 as Liberal. (Now these were probably answered the way

that they interpreted the question. Which might be different from how I

interoperated them.) When the questions had anything to do with the

constitution (like people being able to bear arms) the majority of the class

said yes or if it had to do with the privacy/military the majority of the class

said yes. Which made them answer the way a conservative would answer.

When it came to the question that had the government stepping in to help

provide equality to all (like with the immigration policy, legalizing gay

marriage, and universal health care) the majority of the vote was yes. Which

was more of how a liberal would answer. This my observation from the
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information form the survey of how aware our class is on their government

officials and political issues.