Hi ChatterFoxes and welcome to washington DC washington DC is the
capital of the united states and also the home to ChatterFox so we're super
excited to show you a very important building in washington DC which is the
united states capitol so as you can see behind me this is the United States
Capitol the United States Capitol is where the Congress meets to vote on
important laws so each of the members of Congress have an office in a building
that's behind the Capitol but when they meet together to vote on important
legislation they do it in this building right here the United States Capitol
since we're at the United States Capitol in this video you're going to be
learning some important American expressions about politics starting with
the GOP GOP is the abbreviation of Grand Old Party which is another name for the
Republican Party the GOP next left wing left wing refers
to liberal politics liberal meaning progressive so the left wing party or
the left wing politics would be the Democrats in this country next checks
and balances checks and balances refer to the three branches of the United
States government the United States government has an executive branch which
is the president it has a legislative branch which is the Congress the the
House of Representatives and the Senate which of course meet in this building
here and the judicial branch which is the Supreme Court and checks and
balances furs to the balance of power between
these three branches of the government in other words not one single branch of
government has all the power the president doesn't have all the power the
Congress doesn't have all the power and the courts don't have all the power
there's checks and balances between all three of the branches witch hunts
witch hunt so a witch hunt refers back to many centuries ago when people were
killing members of their community because they thought they were witches
or at least they were accused of being witches so in today's modern times when
we say witch hunt it refers to trying to find someone to blame for something so
if someone's on a witch hunt they may be saying that that person did
something wrong and that person did something wrong and that person did
something wrong just to make sure that no one is pointing their finger at
themselves to say that they did something wrong so a witch hunt is
looking for people to blame witch hunt and when you say the word hunt it has a
stop T on the end so it's not hunt its hunting you don't really hear the true T
sound at the end of hunt witch hunt witch hunt photo op photo op is a
shortened version of the term photo opportunity a photo opportunity is
something like what I'm taking advantage of right now the opportunity to take a
great photo somewhere so right now I'm on the National Mall I'm in front of the
Capitol building this is a great opportunity for a picture or of course a
video about American political expressions but the term photo op is
very important because politicians to photo ops all the time for example a
politician may want to go to volunteer in a hospital or a soup kitchen or do
whatever other thing that makes them look like a good person and that's
called a photo op because they're going to that place so that they can have
their picture taken there to make it look like they're doing something good
photo op photo op so when you say the word photo make sure to use a flap T
which sounds like a D sound photo photo op photo op big brother big
brother some people say that big brother is always watching you and what this
term means that someone either the government or some corporation or
someone is always watching what you do and here in Washington DC that actually
may be true because in Washington DC there's a ton of security and police
everywhere so you could say that in Washington DC big brother is always
watching you and big brother of course is the government when you say big
brother there's a /th/ sound in bro/th/er so it's not broder
it's brother with a senator do you have trouble making /th/ sound
be sure to follow ChatterFox because we have a lot of videos that will explain
how to make all of the sounds of American English including the the 2 /th/
sounds and the last term is Bi-partisan Bi-partisan refers to something that
involves both parties or where both parties are working together the
Democrats and the Republicans because of course those are really
only two parties that have any power in the United States so when you say
something is Bi-partisan means that two parties are working together bi-partisan
people say this word in a couple of different ways one of them is bipartisan
with a sound bipartisan and some people make a sound bipartisan so whichever way
feels more comfortable for you will be a great way to pronounce it bipartisan
with us or bipartisan with a Senate so now that we've learned this important
term bipartisan I have a question for you some people think that in the United
States all of the fighting between the two parties the Democrats and the
Republicans is all just a big show and that most of the legislation that's
passed is actually bi-partisan because all of the legislators are really
working together other people think that nothing is bipartisan and that the two
parties cannot work together because they disagree on so many things I want
to know what you think what's your opinion tell us in the comments section
below can't wait to hear from you
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