Texas Political Culture Essay

Texas has a vast society with a multitude of individualistic ways of thinking. The diversity in Texas's economic interest, complex history, and geographical disparity have been as a whole accumulated into one classification for centuries. Texans are labeled as being independent and mistrustful of the government. This perspective of Texas is determined by its political culture; one's perspectives, mannerism, and attitude towards the government influences a state's political culture which impacts a states political decision making. Thus, the Lone Star state is classified to have an individualistic political culture with hints of traditionalistic values due to its conservative habits, skepticism towards government, and its individualistic conduct.

Texas Political Ideology
A diverse population of 28.3 million people of a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds populate Texas. These determined and proud people are ruled by an individualistic political culture with a “lone-fight, one-Ranger” philosophy that encourages their independent qualities. Individualistic political culture can be defined as the authority individual liberties and personal contentment have over any other political virtue. Texas as a whole has evolved to be fearful of government interventions and is only persuaded when there is a probability for individual exploits. Traditionalistic political culture can be defined as governing with the goal to maintain the status quo and strengthen the higher class. As progressive as Texas may seem, it still holds many values from past centuries. Due to this, Texas still holds the title of traditionalism when it comes to political culture. Texas assimilation of past values and new values accentuates the hierarchical society way of aristocratic rule. Another established traditionalistic political view is the coaxing of the government by the distinguished wealthy class only if it fortifies their authority.
A government based on an individualistic political culture is defined as relying to the marketplace, and it is used for individual interests who manipulate the political system to prosper in one's own convictions. Evidently, this manifests the role the government plays in this political system. In this case, the government’s role is eminently restricted due to the purpose of preserving the marketplace’s functionality. This mentality results in a negative perspective of bureaucracy which propagates corruption in politics. Because of this corruption, a politicians main goal is expediency in order to be promoted to a higher rank. Hence, elections are centralized in gaining status and being elected by any means necessary, rather than focusing on problems.
The philosophy of focusing on one's private affairs instead of prioritizing on perfecting a society is practiced by both politicians and citizens. This results in a stagnant neutral society that is dismissive to the idea of conforming in order to improve, yet individualistic political culture wouldn’t entirely describe Texas’ political culture. Traditionalistic culture would believe that politicians should always be the higher class, and average citizen should have no say in political endeavours. This mentality evolved in Texas from the lack of voter participation and its social conservatism ways.
Unquestionably, Traditionalist believe that there should be little to no change particularly in religious and cultural practices. On July 21, Texas refused to pass “a bill regulating the use of bathrooms by transgender people” (Somashekhar, p.1) once again. As Ben Bradford (2017) has explained, in contrast to Texas, California which is governed by a Moralistic political culture, has allowed transgender students in public schools to “continue to use facilities for the gender they identify with” (p.1). This Inclusive Restroom law has been enacted since 2013. Evidently, this goes to show how obstinate Texas is when faced with the opportunity of change.
Philosophies in Texas
One can argue that two opposite philosophies define the ethics of Texans. These two philosophies are constitutionally created when individualistic and traditionalistic political culture values are combined. In this case, the philosophes believed to illustrate Texas’ political culture is the philosophy of Social Darwinism and the simple philosophy that Texas ideologies are there to protect the people. Social Darwinism can be defined as the concept of natural selection; simply put the strong persevere and the weak don't. Undeniably, this philosophy is characterised by traditionalistic values due to its implication of conservatism. This philosophy is represented by Texas republicans who believe that the government should not interfere in issues such as poverty.
In contrast, the democratic party in Texas believes that its political culture can be used to help aid the people of Texas for the greater good.

It is possible that with the limited power the government holds can be used to protect the people from issues such as monopolies, corrupted companies, or corruption in political offices. These values are more liberal in a sense and conform to individualistic views. Thus, these philosophies corresponding to the values of Texas’ political cultures are significant because it allows one to understand how the people create a collective representation on how texas government should advocate the people's political

convictions.
Texas Government Lecture
As stated in lecture, the ideology of conservative Texas in the 19th century believes “in the market as a self-sufficient and self-regulating system” and the 20th century believes that the market should be “anti-regulation”. As has been noted, individualistic views have been committed into texas political culture since the 18th century. Therefore, emphasizing the argument that conservatism has shaped Texas into the state that it is with the values of a self-interest ideology.
A Traditionalist political culture example in Texas are political parties.

In accordance to the lecture, one of the main jobs political parties are in charge of is to “shape public policy by influencing public officials”. This allows political parties to possess a substantial amount of power. Such power can create corruption when it is incorporated with traditionalistic culture. The Main Post (2016) believes that because Texas “only has one legislative session every two years” it “does nothing but exacerbate government corruption in the state” (p.9). This corruption committed by Texas political parties is influenced by the idea of having an unchangeable system which is created by political subcultures with conservative values. Nevertheless, the corruption that sprouts from Texas’s political parties is prosperously regulated by traditionalistic and individualistic political culture

values.
Analysis
Texas’s political ideology can be categorized as classical liberalism, populism, and social conservatism. Classical liberalism places its primary value on obtaining the freedom of the people by restricting government power. This ideology emphasizes an individualistic political culture through the orthodox-like ethics Texans possess. In contrast, Social conservatism prioritizes on the conservation of traditional values such as family, marriage, and the support for small businesses and gun owners. Without a doubt, this emphasizes traditionalistic political culture due to its reluctant attitude towards change, and the demand for protection of the familiar. Populism is an alarmingly loaded word, but it is defined as the support and power the people recieve when faced with endeavours of the higher class. In a political sense populism challenges Texas political culture due its main goal being to support the people at an cost by using the government and allowing it to supervise the economy and societies. By having populism present in subcultures, it manages to balance the other political ideologies that may be overpowering one another. There is no argument that to much of populism can affect a society negatively.
Political Opinion
I believe that the as Texas develops, its Political culture will diversify and there will be a possibility for conflict. The ideology of conservatism will be prominent for many centuries, yet as the hispanic, asian, and African American minority groups expand Texas will be faced with the alternative for change. This will result in Texas becoming more moralistic due to the emphasis in the commonwealth. Government authority will be amplified due to the voices of the minorities wanting modification in its political system. With this corruption will decreased because the people will depend on the public service the government will provide. Therefore, I believe that Texas political culture will interchangeably be beneficial to the people as it will be to the government.
Conclusion
Texas is described as a diverse society and is impossible to define in a couple of ideologies. With its rich historical and political background one can conclude that this immense state will one day be able to advance politically and strive for better change. While Texas is ruled by individualistic and traditionalistic views, it is undoubtedly that Texas will remain conservative until there is pressure for political amendment.