How to Decide if You're a Democrat

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Matthew Burbank, I'm an associate professor at the University of Utah and I'd like to talk to you a little bit about how to decide if you're a democrat. This first thing you want to recognize is that you are the only one who can decide whether you are a democrat or not or a republican, or an independent, or a member of any other party. That question is entirely up to you in terms of how you think about yourself. For most people the way that they learn about the political parties is from their parents, and so people often have a sense of who they are politically based upon their family and friends. Recognize that for many adults they begin to think about politics somewhat differently, that is they begin to think about politics in terms of particular issues or particular candidates and often those issues are candidates who will attract them to one party or the other. Generally speaking, democrats are regarded are being somewhat more liberal and republicans are regarded as being somewhat more conservative. But the reality is those labels of liberal and conservative are going to depend upon where you are and what kinds of political traditions exist in your state and community. There is a broad range of people who call themselves democrats and the major thing that you have to think about is do you identify with people who are like other democrats."