politics in United States are still influenced by factors such as gender, religion and race

politics in United States are still influenced by factors such as gender, religion and race

Introduction

Although democracy has been emphasized in many countries across the entire world when it comes to politics, it is beyond reasonable doubt that there are many external factors away from what is perceived to be the real politics influencing the outcome. United States is one of the good examples which can be scrutinized to affirm the trend. I mean, how often do we hear men testify that they can’t vote in women to lead them? Christians testifying that they can’t allow Muslims to lead them and majority race in a democratic country swear not to support a certain candidate just because of his or her race? Then, this a clear indication that politics in United States are still influenced by factors such as gender, religion and race. Different scholars have had different approaches to explain the phenomenon.

https://mvelestoque.atavist.com/contributing-factors-to-political-views

The oxford research encyclopedias for instance have pointed out how diversity in ethnic groups among the western states has become prominent in most of the contemporary democracies. This has led to influence of this phenomenon even in political behavior. According to their study which basically focused on Race and Ethnicity influence on citizens Political Behavior, they concluded that most of political opinions were highly affected by race. They observed that members from ethnic minorities were generally less active politically not by choice but because of political empowerment. This has resulted to members from minority electing leaders from their own while the majority on the other hand electing their own. And this shows how race is controlling the politics[1].

http://www.iop.harvard.edu/race-and-ethnicity-still-play-role-political-attitudes

On a different case scenario, Harvard University tried to explain how the race factor has influenced the politics in United States by narrating Obama’s leadership story right from his campaigns to become the first Black American in the history of America up to his leadership support after he was ushered in as the president in 2008. According to the research, the records indicated clearly that Black Americans and Latinos formed the majority of those who were fully behind the Obama presidency despite of the opposition by some of whites whom resistance was highly criticized to be on racial basis. This did not stop at that point because even after Obama’s popular performance seemed to decline in the course of his leadership term, most of those who were criticized him were the whites while African-American youths largely supported him, with 78 % to be exact approving his performance. This shows how racism has corrupted the minds of individuals to an extent of supporting what is not right provided it’s done by one of their own[2].

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/20/how-race-and-religion-        have-   polarized-american-voters/?utm_term=.e329def3cb2b

Alan Abramowitz in his article “polarization of American voters by race and religion” has also been able to reveal the extent to which race has stage managed the politics by comparing the trend in the two main political parties of United States, Republican and Democratic parties. Due to increased immigration levels from Latin America and Asia among nonwhites, there have been high racial divides between the Democratic and Republican electoral coalitions[3].

http://politics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-     9780190228637-e-238

On a different note, Emma, Daniel and Jackie demonstrated the gender as one of contributing factor in the politics of America. Basing his argument on the 2016 elections where Hillary Clinton emerged as the first female to be nominated, most of the citizens termed the elections as unprecedented. Most of the Americans however marked her rise by backlash. Due to gender bias, she was even asserted as unqualified and untrustworthy. And this largely affected the outcome of the elections[4].

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gia_facpub/79/

Gary and Harry in their article “Politics of Latin America: The Power Game” scrutinized the politics of Latin America by considering how leadership positions were being distributed on the basis of race. Considering most of the Latin American nations like Mexico, Brazil and Chile, the leadership was being dominated by Black Americans compared to Whites. According to Gary and Harry, the leadership should be depicting some balance bearing the fact that both races are sharing the population in those countries. This shows how race has had control over the politics in these countries[5].

[1] http://politics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-    9780190228637-e-238

[2] http://www.iop.harvard.edu/race-and-ethnicity-still-play-role-political-attitudes

[3] https://mvelestoque.atavist.com/contributing-factors-to-political-views

[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/20/how-race-and-religion-have-polarized-american-   voters/?utm_term=.e329def3cb2b

[5] http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gia_facpub/79/