Texas Politics And Impact Of The Frontier Experience example essay topic

Texas Political Culture and the Impact of the Frontier Experience Throughout Texas history, politics has been influenced by political culture. Political culture is defined as attitudes, habits, and general behavior patterns regarding government. A states political culture is influenced by all political decisions. Texans attitudes toward government have evolved from many generations to get to where we are today. Texans have always been very individualistic and conservative in their political views. The majority of Texans are descendants of citizens from the traditionalist ic southern states.

This being true, many Texans are set in stone on what they believe, and do not like to see change in the state and local government. Many Texans have also inherited racist attitudes towards African Americans and other minorities. The Frontier Experience has affected Texas' political culture in different ways. One reason of Texas' conservatism can be linked back to the frontier experience.

Many historians put emphasis on Texan's struggle with Mexico and their battles with native Americans. After Texas was settled, there were problems with range wars and cattle rustling. With this going on, many Texans took the law into their own hands. Many Texans carried pistols for survival and protection of their family.

Large numbers of the old western movies and books of these experiences have traveled down through generations to where we are today, causing many people to think that the legislative decision to legalize the carrying of concealed handguns was impacted by the frontier experience. This is already being done in many south Texas towns where the old political order is being challenged and defeated by a new generation of Mexican Americans. Today in many cities, shootings and other violence crimes are as common as they were in the nineteenth century. Because of the urbanization and industrialization that has taken place, many people from other states and other countries will begin to move in. With so many immigrants, political culture is bound to change.

The rising number of Hispanics will soon be the cause of Texas being a place with no majority. Massive amounts of changes are taking place, causing many of Texas' cultural identities to change. With the rising number of minorities, soon there will be no majority, which will change political culture in Texas. With this change coming soon, the political future for Texas could be changed forever.

Political stands on issues today will be influenced and changed in many ways forever. Up to this point, most of political culture has been shaped by Anglo Americans being the dominant race. With the growing number of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants, the conservatism has overwhelmed the south, and may be overturned by a new group of liberally influenced Americans. In general, most minorities tend to be liberal and prefer a larger government. In the past Texas has usually been dominated by conservative people, if liberals take over, politics could be changed drastically. For example, if Texas is overrun with a more liberal society, the society is more likely to elect liberal state representatives.

If a more liberal legislature gets elected, Texas politics and Texas political culture would be changed for a very long time. It is hard to predict the changes that will occur in Texas political culture. What is easy to predict is the different scenarios of the way the people in the state will change. One thing that History has taught us is, things don't usually stay the same forever.

This is very possible for Texas politics as we move through the 21st century..