Ideology and Politics

Ideology has minimal impact on political ideology. The majority of the American population does not have enough political knowledge to form educated opinions about politics and make decisions based on ideology. In reality, many of the people who identify with ideology are politicians, and even then they tend to stick to party lines so their opinion is lost in the majority or looming election. While a small portion participate based on ideology, most are classified as "group benefits," "nature of the times," or "no issue content." This means people vote in terms of groups they like or dislike, whether the times seem good or bad (productivity), or because of routine or personality of candidates, respectively. As a general rule, people are conservative in ideology but liberal in practice. There are many institutions that we generally accept and want to keep but are very liberal.