We have addressed American political culture from many perspectives this quarter. We have discussed the evolution of American political culture and several of the important elements that continue to shape it including, immigration, race, ethnicity, religion, education, elections and representation, etc. Although we often find it challenging to view things outside of the modern day perspective, much has changed over time. Consider the following:
2 months ago: you started this class
1 year ago: Protestants no longer make up majority of American population
5 year ago: the first nonwhite president was elected
6 years ago: Unemployment 4.5%, DOW at 14,000 (Today Unemployment 7.5% overall, 7.1 % for whites, 12.5% for African Americans, 9.8% for Hispanics, 5.2% for Asian Americans, more unemployment stats here, DOW 15,375 )
7 years ago: very few of us had ever heard of Barack Obama
10 years ago: The supreme court ruled that colleges still had legitimate reasons to use race and ethnicity as factors in college admissions
12 years ago: 9/11
22 years ago: the Rodney King Case and racially charged rioting
35 years ago: Regents of University of CA vs. Bakke
40 years ago: Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion nationwide
45 years ago: modern civil rights movement ends (according to most historians), Martin Luther King killed, major riots, peak of troops in Vietnam
46 years ago: third year in a row of major racially charged riots throughout American cities
48 years ago: Voting Rights Act of 1965, new immigration laws dramatically increase immigration (especially from Asia and Latin America), Black Power movement, Malcolm X killed
49 years ago: Civil Rights Act of 1964
50 years ago: March on Washington, Birmingham protests
58 years ago: Montgomery Bus Boycott
59 years ago: Brown vs. Board of Education
68 years ago: end of WWII
69 years ago: Interment of 110,000 Japanese Americans
93 years ago: Women gain the right to vote
106 years ago: peak of immigration at turn of century
117 years ago: Plessy vs. Ferguson - separate but equal is constitutional
119 years ago: widespread lynching and intimidation
125 years ago: Chinese Exclusion Act
136 years ago: end of reconstruction, early Jim Crow Era (which lasts nearly 100 years)
143 years ago: 15th amendment - black men given right to vote
145 years ago: 14th amendment
147 years ago: 13th amendment - end of slavery
148 years ago: end of Civil War, Start of reconstruction, black codes
152 years ago: start of Civil War
204 years ago: end of slave trade
226 years ago: Constitution written including 3/5 compromise and slavery
237 years ago: Declaration of Independence
394 years ago: first slaves from Africa brought to colonies
406 years ago: first British Colony established
several thousand years earlier: Native Americans living here.
The point: much has changed, and often in a short period of time. Looking forward what do you predict will be the state of American political culture 10, 20, or even 50 years from now? What can and should be done politically to help?
This is a phenomenal question. No one can effectively argue that we cannot learn from history and the past. Thus being, I personally believe that here in the US, our political culture will continue to evolve and make strides in both the social and political realms. If one begins at the bottom of the list and reads upwards, in general, the trend depicts more rights and social justice for citizens of the US. It is important to continue to create an environment and nation where citizens are politically and socially equal and can have the same opportunities. Predicting the future is never easy, one can only use historical data and precursory cues to try and analytically predict future events or trends. However, the trend suggests a more "socially-aware" society is upcoming. This is a good step in involving more citizens in the political culture of the USA.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is impossible to predict what will happen over the next years in America. Change moves very vast and 50 years ago no one would have believed that a black man could ever be elected President of the United States. The only things that can be done politically to bring about change in the future is to continue fighting to make sure that everyone gets equal rights under the law. Also getting people more interested in politics and policy will go a long way to making sure that social progress occurs faster.
ReplyDeleteThis question evokes many emotions from me. Part of that is because I am shocked at how soon or long ago some of the things on that list occurred. Part of it is because I know if certain major things do not change then this country will be in a whole lot of trouble. I think that these changes will happen simply because they must if the United States wants to still be the world power it is today. Technology and ideas will advance and 50 years from now this country, and the world as a whole will be very different. We can only hope they move in a positive direction. To make this happen our country needs to stop prescribing to the idea of "thats how we've always done it". That argument prevents evolution and progressiveness. This country will need to learn how to accept REAL change to its core values to catch up with the times. The Constitution was written in the 18th century, as it was stated earlier, much has changed since then and the Founding Fathers would have, almost assuredly, done things differently if it were happening in todays world.
ReplyDeleteThe political culture of America will most certainly be recognizable 50 years from now, but it definitely will be altered. First and foremost, I believe that America will have to learn to deal with more formidable players in the political arena. I still think that the US will be a top power, but so will India, Brazil, China and other industrializing countries where the main issue is standard of living. As far as social movements go, I do believe that the gay rights movement is our generations Civil Rights movement. 25-50 years from now, my children's social movement could be anything, but I'm guessing it will continue to be gay rights, but also a push for the rights of the transgendered. I am happy to see this as a blog though. I'm a Chicago tour guide by night and it's always sobering to me to point out the Congress Hotel-- the spot where the color barrier was broken in music during the lifetimes of most of our grandparents. I always make it a point to note our countries triumphs to my foreign tourists, but I don't hide from our shortcomings. It's amazing how much has changed even 50 years ago. To me, it's concerning, but also so exciting. We don't live in a perfect world, but as we've seen throughout our lifetimes-- things can change very quickly.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is difficult to predict what our political landscape will look like in 50 years, I believe it is safe to say it will continue to evolve. I still seeing the our politicians being dominantly white and Christian, but the "minority" races, religions, and sexual preferences will have far greater representation. I would hope that in the next 50 years LGTBQ rights will be passed. While we still have a ways to go, 12 states have passed same sex marriage since 2004, so there is hope that this can be accomplish in our lifetime. The greatest accomplishment I see this nation accomplishing in the next 50 years is the election of a woman, Hispanic, or non-Christian into the office of president. The United States is pulling away from its political past. While still dominated by white, Christian males, politics is no longer exclusively to them.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is very difficult to predict what our political culture will look like in the next five decades. So many things that people would never expect to happen, have happened. For example, my grandparents' generation may never have believed they would be alive to witness the first black President, because they witnessed the worst of segregation. One thing I hope that we will see in our very near future will be marriage equality. I believe that in the next fifty years there will be no doubt that LGTBQ rights will be passed, but hopefully we will be able to witness it sooner rather than later. Although I cannot guarantee it, I hope in the next 50 years our political culture will be even more accepting and positive.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to determine American political culture in 10, 20 or 50 years, all we can do is guess. The one thing we can count on is that events will be influenced by the economy. Everything on the list was determined by an economic reason. From the founding of America to the civil war to the way segregation came and went. Even the historic election of Obama was thanks to the middleclass loosing so much during the Bush era. So by looking thru our current economy and the sequester in effect for the next 10 years. During this time there will be cuts to education, economic growth, security and safety, and public health. Every one of us will be affected for at least 10 years either by cuts in education, or increase in taxes, or lack of police presents in the streets, or lack of new medicine being developed. On the international level China will be a huge factor in the global economy. By 2016 it will be the largest economy and will exert its influence on the global landscape. All of this will effect how we live and how we look at ourselves and the world, the events will just be a consequence.
ReplyDeleteWe can guess, People write books guessing what the future will look like. If you ask me though its largely a thought experiment that will ultimately be wrong. Politically I see a larger split between the parties. I see the Democrats shifting toward a more European style economic/political platform. And the Republicans after a large section of infighting either going toward populism, or libertarianism. But in reality political realities are shaped more by economic and technological forces then ever before. 3D printing will completely revolutionize the industrial complex and there will be an even larger emphasis on resource extraction, and design. The traditional store front will slowly but surly go obsolete. Our culture will be more pleasure oriented. Nuclear Fusion will do many things for energy independence and power efficiency. The internet will continue to break down barriers in communication. I could make a large argument about how the world will change but the technological changes will be more than I could ever comprehend. I am posting a link to this post that predicts technological evolution in the next hundred years and by looking at it you can see things will change more than we can keep up. I just hope we don't kill ourselves before we truly get to benefit from them.
ReplyDeletehttp://i.imgur.com/9RaP5gi.png
As everyone else has already stated, its almost impossible to tell what our political culture will look like in next 50 years let alone 10 years. Looking at the time line, it is crazy to see how long or short ago certain events happened. The fact that Jim Crow laws were in practice for nearly one hundred years probably seems absurd to most it us. It also seems crazy to me that there are probably women alive today were born in a time when women weren't allowed to vote (though by the time they were old enough they probably could, but still). It is also crazy to think that in an instant something can happen that significantly changes the political culture/climate, I'm thinking of 9/11. Given these things its hard to even begin to predict what the future will be like, especially when the future is so unpredictable. We may make plans for our future, but there is really no way of knowing if they will turn out, no matter how hard we try to make things go our way there are always things we cant control. However as others have said, there are huge strides being made for the LGBTQ community, and I think that will definitely continue. I also think that America is becoming increasingly diverse, and that this will eventually become more apparent in our political culture, as it is less dominated by white protestants. Things will change, I think that is inevitable. What will change, and to what extent, that is what is really up in the air.
ReplyDeleteI think the future is moving in a positive direction. I say this only because I believe we have hit rock bottom and there's only up from there. I don't believe the American public will tolerate any further of a split between the two political parties. I do not forsee the United States ridding of the party system, I do, however, believe that democrats and republicans will find that the public will become increasingly interested in a more perfect union rather than individual issues. The US is becoming more and more liberal on social issues (for example: gay marriage) and I think this will force the right to adjust their more conservative and traditional beliefs in order accomplish their political agenda. I think that social issues such as gay marriage or a woman's right to choose, are high on the priority list of the right, but they will need to reexamine their priorities in order to stay politically relevant. On the other hand, the democrats will need to accept the fact that although social issues are immensely important, the individualistic idealism of Americans drives economic issues as high priority. The democratic party will need to learn how to incorporate economic issues into their political agenda and realize the economic implications of resolving social issues.
ReplyDeleteI will focus one area of political culture that I hope and predict will change, education. As we saw in class, the American education system is failing. I predict that there will be an education reform done in the future, hopefully 20 to fifty years from. There are issues that are more important to the public at this moment, for instance the economy, but people will notice that how we educate are up incoming citizens will have a lot to do with our future as well. I personally hope we move away from standardized testing and focus more on aspects of critical thinking and analyzing information. It is unrealistic to eliminate standardized testing, but placing so much emphasis on it should be avoided. I also predict that the economy will continue to be the forefront of most discussion for the next coming elections because of the student loan crisis. That is the next bubble to burst, and it will be very hard for the American economy to progress and prosper if most of the public is paying off hundreds and thousands of loans instead of buying goods and services. It is very difficult to predict, but it is safe to assume that the economy will continue to be one of the major issues discussed in 2016 and the 2020 Presidential elections.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people have already said some of the main things that I think are large problems now and we would hope would change by the time that period in American political culture comes around. I do agree that LGBTQ rights will have evolved, and probably even trend more towards the p.c. "norm" to treat these people equally under the law, in practice, and to just have it become generally unacceptable on the streets for every day people to use slurs similar to how things have evolved for African Americans. However, I think there is the possibility that because this community does not necessarily have historical disadvantages economically, as the slaves did (as in Obama's speech he said did not have the opportunity to collect and pass on wealth through the generations, and that is part of the reason why there were pockets of African Americans in poverty today), that the previous discrimination will not have any of same long-term effects on the LGBTQ community, and might not create the same lasting anger and division that Obama also mentioned. I think once laws of marriage equality have passed, they will sort of easily blend into the background, of course maybe more quickly in majorly urban or liberal areas than rural or conservative ones, but nonetheless it will occur somewhat quickly. On the issue of education, I feel that this is the most important thing that should be improved by that time, but I feel like just then will we be actually reaching a breaking point that is so obvious that our system is failing that a larger number of people will actually begin to care about the issue and pressure both the federal and their state and local governments to do something about it. Until then I think sadly things may just continue to deteriorate in areas where they currently are. I think that the parties are close enough to reaching that critical breaking point with too much partisanship and the resulting gridlock that something will have been done to potentially moderate the ideas of the two major parties at least. Additionally, on its own, the GOP will have faced a large internal crisis about the direction that is going, worked through it, and made a new case for itself. I sort of see a Young Republicans type organization potentially making being Republican "cool" again to the younger voters. I also think another aspect that might be interesting is now that a few waves of people had gone through the path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, since they are of such a large number, and how they had potentially become a very important part of the economy, and potentially a turn from a negative view of immigrants to a positive one, and one where the United States actively recruited the type of people it needed when areas of the labor force were lacking.
ReplyDeleteThe american political culture is a very interesting beast and in the future i see it moving in a positive direction. I feel this way because while nothing is perfect, america traditionally has moved towards a nation that respects and adheres to all of its constituents. The only negative I could see america facing would be the continuing split of politics. America has to go back to its roots and understand that this nation was built with many view points and backgrounds COMING TOGETHER and working as one.
ReplyDelete