Kemi Oba
Dr. Sledge
Section: 006
Response Paper
Texas went through a great amount of political change from being dominated by the Democratic Party during the 1960s and 70s, from the Republican Party taking over in the 80s. One of the big reasons for this change was due to the political party’s views. Throughout this essay I will discuss the changes of the political stances in Texas as well as the present day factors that affect America.
Until the 1980’s Texas was dominated by the Democratic Party, they abrupt change in was due to many factors such as the change in the Democratic Party’s view. According the reading the “The Democratic party dominated Texas politics until the 1960s 1970s in a large part because it was seen as the party
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There has been a huge question of why Texas has shifted from being mainly Democratic to Republican state. When reading “Cowboy Conservatism” by Sean P. Cunningham the most basic analysis of why there has been the drastic change was because rather than Texas leaving the Democratic Party the Democratic Party left Texas. Both parties went through a great amount of change on what each specific party views were. For example “Both parties experienced periods of factional discord and ideological readjustment” The democratic and republican parties had big changes in their political views. The economic changes that Texas was undergoing was one of the reasons that there was discord in the democratic and republican party. Increase in the population in the suburbs was a huge impact in the change of the political parties. The migration into the major cities such as Houston, Austin, and Fort Bend County had an influence on the votes. Since there was an influx of people from other places with republican views there was a tremendous increases of change in votes of political party’s from democratic to republican. There was also a decrease in conservative democrats in the U.S. furthermore having a decrease of conservatives demarcated and increase of more suburbs and the Republican Party is what changed Texas to republican. Texans had a view of the Democratic …show more content…
In the Reading “Cowboy Conservatism” Cunningham spoke on how the Democratic Party left Texas because of the change in what it stood for. The Democratic Party went from being very conservative to becoming liberal. In order for a party to win you have to appeal to the people who will be voting for your party, therefore depending on the views a certain state has can have a huge effect on the outcome. The Republican Party in the 20th century is the major political party of Texas but as we read and discussed in class, that can very well change this election. There are more minority’s in Texas than there has ever been in the past years. The Hispanic population is continuously growing and it was shown that and good amount of them voted for the Democratic Party. If Republican are not able to appeal to the Minority voters in Texas, it will be the end of the Republican Party as a whole. The Republican Party needs to make sure that they know what they stand for and what they will offer to Americans especially
Sharpless tells how life in the city became more convenient due to easier access to electricity and running water. Women began moving into town not just for personal but economical and political reasons. Politics held a great responsibility in modernizing Texas. As Buenger emphasizes throughout his book “The Path to a Modern South” the importance of politics and how it changed culture is ultimately what set Texas apart from the rest of the southern states. By the 1920’s politics had changed dramatically in Texas, women were allowed to vote almost 2 years before any other state in America.
The idea of Texas secession is not a new one. The decision in the 1869 Supreme Court Case Texas v. White set a precedent that states could not secede from the union (Rothman), but recent events show that not everyone in Texas believes this to be the case. There was a petition to the White House for the secession of Texas in 2012 (Diaz) but, more recently, support has been growing in the Republican Party. This spring the Republican platform committee voted to put the topic of secession up for discussion during the Texas State Republican Convention in early May (Baddour). While the idea still has only a small amount of support, none of that support comes from the party’s leaders (Associated Press). It’s clear from comments made in the articles that no one thought the vote would pass. Many people are surprised the movement has as much support as it does. Yet according to the article from The Washington Post, the discussion at the GOP convention was, “two votes shy of going to a floor
The American way of living and thinking in Texas have changed tremendously over the past century. Political ideals are one thing that changes with time, and have transformed with the changing times well. The Texas constitution of 1876 was a landmark for the state and has been part of the state’s history since then. The Texas constitution of 1876 is still in use today but with all its harsh restrictions it is considered one of the most confusing of all the state constitutions. The constitution became one of the most prominent changes to Texas education system and politics.
Texas and Federal Constitutions contain the principles needed for a representative democratic government and both arose from different historical situations; for instance, the U.S. Constitution was made to replace the Articles of Confederation, a weak decentralized form of national government with no president or taxes, which made the government not powerful enough to start a war. The U.S. Constitution was made to improve these weaknesses by proposing a degree of centralization which increased government power. On the other hand, Texas Constitution was made to reverse or avoid the ideas of the U.S. Constitution. On one part, the U.S. Constitution wanted to empower government action whereas the Texas Constitution wanted to weaken government action. The Texas Constitution is more geared toward protecting people’s rights whereas the U.S. Constitution protects the nation’s interest. The Texas Constitution has been amended more than 300 times whereas the US Constitution includes the Bill of Rights and the subsequent
The people of Texas are diverse and carry their “big can-do attitudes and accents” (Pearson); making Texas a bigger than life state. The political culture of Texas is impacted by two different subgroups of individualistic and traditionalistic characteristics. The combination of traditionalism and individualism has had a huge impact on the state and Texas’ seven different constitutions. The shift in power between 1827 and 1876 has impacted the political diversity Texas has today. Looking at the specifics of these subcultures, the traditionalists believe government should benefit the wealthy and powerful, and that government services must be limited.
Newell, Charldean. "Inflexibility, Traditionalism, and Partisanship: The Texas Response to New Federalism." Review. Annual Review of American Federalism 12 (1981 (1983): 185-95. Publius. Oxford University Press. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
A Democratic Party long ruled by moderates and conservatives succeeded in stunting what seemed like the natural growth of a successful Republican Party until the 1990s. Since then, various forces have contributed to the growth of the Republicans, and in the end, to an altering of the core membership of each party. Most recently, the state has seen the development of a dominant Republican Party that doesn't yet hold quite the dominion the Democrats enjoyed through most of the twentieth century. The Republican Party has certainly benefited from the defection of former Democrats, the arrival of Republicans and independents from out of state, and organizational difficulties in the Democratic Party. Thus, Republican officials dominate state government, and Democrats find themselves reduced, for the present, to the status of an embattled minority party seeking to recreate themselves among their voting and financial constituencies. This is showing that the newfound Republican dominance can be the beginning of a new strong party system, or if we are in a state of transition in which the terms of political competition are still in change. If it is a new party system, I don’t think it will be very durable or last too long for that matter. Now, it seems that Republican dominance of state government will
The Texas Legislature is far too archaic to provide consistent leadership for a state government; Congress has become too enmeshed with the executive branch and leaves blurry lines drawn in its separation of powers. The ideal legislature would be a modernized version of what the Texas Constitution created.
University of Texas at Austin. Texas Politics, The legislative Branch. Austin, 2nd Edition-Revision 94 2009, Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services.
In the United States, for the last four decades, from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan through the two Bush Presidencies, the Republican Party won the White House by amassing large margins among white voters (Lizza.) The state of Texas has been reliably Republican since the 1970s and there are various elements to Texas political culture that can be narrowed down to three essential ideological trends: economic liberalism, or faith in the free market economy, social conservatism, or favoring traditional values and moralism, and populism, or promoting the rights and worthiness of ordinary people (Texas Political Culture.) As a result, the dominant political mood in Texas favors low taxes, minimal government services, and policies that are pro-business. This phenomenon is not static, however, since changing demographics in the state are causing changes in the profile of Texas in reference to electoral politics, among other major issues. This paper will explore different perspectives about the changing demographics of Texas, and where they might lead the state politically, and will present a variety of viewpoints regarding this complex subject.
The Texas government is an unusually complex institution that is composed of many different levels. Everyone asks, with a constitution like the one Texas has, can people really trust the government? The main reasons why people might not be trusting of the government are that they might believe that the officials take advantage of their power, or want to try to control them. The Texas legislature is also subject to checks and balances in the three branch system. For example, the governor 's power to veto bills, which is rarely overridden, and to call special sessions; while the court has the power of judicial review. In Texas, the Constitution divides the powers
Texas politics is an interesting ecosystem of power, rules and regulations. Of course, in typical Texas fashion, most of the politics we engage in we do our own way. From governors who stay in office for a decade to our extremely diverse demographics, Texas is extremely unique. This uniqueness of course comes with its critics, benefits, and downsides. This is particularly true with the Texas Court system compared to both the federal courts and many other states.
Opportunities: The fact that Texas has consistently gone Republican gave Ted Cruz a fairly high advantage on the polls.
The government of the state of Texas is a difficult and complicated institution that is composed of many different levels. The question comes in to everyone's mind at one time or another whether or not to trust the government. It could be that people believe that the officials will take advantage of their power, or simply people don't like the idea of being controlled by someone who is not a family member or friend. To avoid this centralized power, the government is divided into stages and this is a reasonable ground for trusting the government. Government runs this state and it does deserve to be trusted.
Senate demonstrates certain facts. That the regular Democratic party wanted redemption from their earlier loss to Houston’s Oppositionist party; they wanted to reward Wigfall for his service to the party; ultimately, the lack of the Oppositionist to put forth a strong candidate to defeat them led to Wigfall’s election. He contends historians failed to recognize these facts while they continue to assert that the John Brown’s raid became the primary reason for Wigfall to become the next U.S. Senator from Texas. From a bigger picture, Wigfall’s election catapulted the secessionist movement, which started a string of successes for the regular Democrat’s, cumulating to the secession referendum and Texas seceding from the