Political Science
Question 1: The Greatest problem that America is facing
The greatest problem that America is facing today pertains to people’s political inclination, which is defined by demographic characteristics of the citizens. America’ political spectrum consists of the Democrats and Republicans perspective of the American social, cultural, economic and educational ideologies. This problem is addressed in the textbook as among other problems that America has faced since independence. Political socialization is the process by which people acquire opinions and values regarding politics and political ideologies and the American society (Harrison, n. d). This means that individuals often get influenced by their life experiences that tend to mould their political socialization and the way of people’s thinking. The sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group, race, gender, age, residence and events that shaped a person’s life significantly influences American peoples’ political socialization, community life, values and voting habits. All demographic characteristics of the people also shape the degree of involvement in civic activities and contribution to the nation.
Traditionally, African-Americans, Latinos, Whites and Asian American have held different political perspectives, prefer different presidential candidates and have different levels of engagement in civic activities (Harrison, n. d). Candidate preference has always reflected party affiliation of the Americans as either Democrats or Republicans. Generally, the Republicans are “conservatives” while the Democrats are “liberals.” The conservative politicians would want to retain the pure and original phase of America from ethnic, racial, cultural, social, political to economic activities. They hold political ideologies of the pure American society and exclude the “impure” aspects from their opinions. The democrats, on the other hand, are liberals in the sense that they advocate for inclusivity of the ethnic, racial, cultural, social and political ideologies of the minority groups into the American people. There has been a consistent voting habit by the American people as pertains to a democrat of a republican politician. For instance, the 2016 election statistic results revealed that majority of whites supported Donald Trump, who was a Republican candidate. An overwhelming number of African-American (approximately 89) supported Hillary Clinton; a Democrat candidate. This problem is significantly affecting the American society today because a president is no-longer determined by his/her capability to effect change for the people of America but by their demographic characteristics that define their political affiliation (Harrison, n. d). This is a critical problem because American citizen keeps making the wrong choice of leadership. Since the demographic characteristics of the Republicans and Democrats divide the population nearly into two halves, voting in America often leaves half of the citizens dissatisfied with the process.
Question 2: America’s greatest problem from a different perspective
America may be facing a greater problem than politics. After interviewing staunch American citizens, his response was that terrorism is continuing to affect America because of the security threats that America keeps dealing with every day and night. Being a superpower country, it is always threatened to attacks by terrorists on its local citizens and the ones living abroad. Since the September 11 attack, the U.S began its war on terror mission because it was now clear that enemies were up to shaking the sovereignty and supremacy of the country. America is spending billions of dollars in the war against terror; instead, the money could be injected in the economic sector to benefit the country differently. Perhaps this problem emanates from being a superpower nation where commercial and military competition for superiority tends to affect such states. Being on high alert has cost the country billions of dollars to monitor its borders and crack down terrorist activities around the world. The country has gone to the extent of monitoring terror activities in foreign countries because terrorists plan to attack America while operating on other countries (Connell, 2012). A terror attack not directly targeting America is critical for American investigating bodies such as the FBI to ascertain its relationship with previous attacks on American and the possibility of causing a future attack on its citizens.
Currently, an American is at a threat of attack from any corner of the world. This often causes panic for the citizens forcing the president to issue numerous travel advisories to its citizens in fear of attack from enemies. Demographic, political problems do not affect American society only, but all countries in the world experience similar issues. Despite that the terror issue is different from America’s politics, political opinions have often played a part in the war against terror (Connell, 2012). The fight against terror has been politicized, thereby dragging efforts to combat evil acts of terrorists. American politicians have been quoted trying to associate certain minority groups in the country with criminal activities amongst them terror activities. The politicization of American communities and in relation to terrorist activities is a great problem affecting the American people which need to be frequently addressed to bring the issue to an end. American politicians have a responsibility to ensure that their politics do not affect other areas of their lives but guarantee them a better living and prosperity.
Reference
Connell, R. W. (2012). Political socialization in the American family: The evidence re-
examined. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(3), 323-333.
Harrison, B. (n. d). American Democracy. Political Socialization and Public Opinion. Chapter 6