Texas Political Culture Research Paper

Political culture establishes the backdrop against which politics unfold, it establishes the outer limits of what is possible, or even probable in the political realm. Texas political culture can be described as traditionalistic and individualistic. Texas traditionalist political culture believes in the values that policies are designed to preserve social order in the state, politicians come from society’s elite, and politicians have a family obligation to govern. While on the other hand, individualistic political culture believes that government should be limited when it comes to the lives of the public, individual rights of the citizens should be the main focus of a government rule, and a stronger support of personal politics rather than elitism. Texas also has a strong populism influence.

In the Beginning of Sam Houston’s life he was born on March 2, 1793 in Tennessee. Then from 1813-1814 he fought in the Creek War then soon after that in 1827 he became the Governor of Tennessee. Then Sam Houston won the battle of San Jacinto and captured Santa Anna then gained independence from Mexico. Then became governor of Texas in 1832. Sam Houston was chosen to be the commander in chief of the Texas army.

Most of the French settled in the Louisiana. Most of the area was mostly Native American and Europeans who were in Texas before the Texas Revolution. There were many diffident tribes of Native Americans and once more Europeans moved into the United States push many more tribes to the area. Today three main federally recognized tribes are in Texas and are the Coushatta, Kickapoo, and Ysleta del Sur Peublo (Wooster, 2015).

Samuel “Sam” Houston was born in Virginia 1793 and died in 1863. He became a lawyer, congressman, and senator in Tennessee. Sam joined the growing conflict between the U.S. and the Mexican government and became commander of the local army when he moved to Texas in 1832. On April 21, 1836, at the San Jacinto Sam and his men defeated Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in just 18 minutes. He was voted for president in 1836 and in 1841.

Slavery started in the United States in 1619 to increase productivity in agriculture. They helped build the economy of this nation, because they weren 't paid to do work, they were forced to. The whites found this very convenient. If only they knew the consequences it would cause to America in the future. The most important event in American slavery during the 1820’s was the Missouri Compromise.

The annexation of Texas occurred in the early 1800’s. American colonists were expanding into the Northern sector of the Rio Grande, which developed the need for Texas to become a part of the United States. In the South, the people supported the drive toward the annexation of Texas, but the Northerners opposed this idea. Texas was another slave state and the nature of their society did not appear appealing to the North.

The United States obtained most of the land that is now Oklahoma in 1803 when the country paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Purchase. In 1890, the United States Congress passed an act that officially created the Oklahoma Territory. During its years as a territory, the United States government declared Guthrie to be the capital of the area despite the fact that a number of other towns wanted to be the capital. At the time, Guthrie was a railroad station stop on the Southern Kansas Railway, and it had a post office.

These ideological tendencies are expressed in a dominant political culture that tends to favor low taxes, low government services, and pro-business policies, while at the same time reserving a significant respect (at least in the abstract) for popular control of government. The American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty, equality, and democracy. Democracy has been rooted into the government since the Texas Constitution. Elements of the political culture in Texas are one-party state, provincialism, and business dominance.

The history of political parties in Texas is marked by nearly a century of Democratic Party dominance followed by a realignment that shifted the balance of power in favor if the republicans. Political science professor Cal Jilson noted that the dominance of one party in Texas has been a result of the state’s dominant values. Both parties in Texas today reflect more conservative versions of their national counterparts. The other chapter talks about the Interest groups in Texas. Interest groups plays a critical role in all democratic systems of government.

Immigration in Texas has affected the political subculture of the state in the south. The new immigrants adapt to the old political subculture and because they are not legal residents of the state they cannot participate in political culture that can change the way they live specially in the southern parts of Texas like Hidalgo county, Texas where they have highest poverty rate in the nation with forty percent of the residents enroll in the food stamp program. In Texas colonias are unregulated settlements, they are considered rural subdivisions because they lack infrastructure, sewage, roads, and a water system. It is hard for Texas to make change when they have the largest colonia population in the country.

Not surprisingly powerful people and governments still try to dictate where people can and cannot settle. This is evident in the case of the Texas Mexico border. After the United States acquired a large swath of land from France in the Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican government encouraged thousands of citizens to settle in north Mexico. The thinking was that this would create a buffer zone in the event that the United States would try to settle in the region. However, this backfired as the settlers, in what is now Texas, declared independence in 1836.

From the days of British colonies, America has been a melting pot of different cultures. At some point in time, British English accent shifted to an all American accent. From all the other English dialects in the world, what is more fascinating is that within America, every state has its own accents, word choice and vocabulary. The Texas accent remains distinct from other dialects of American English. In comparison to all other states in America, the four main accents of Texas are different and it represents the north Texas accent, the drawl in east Texas, the twang of West Texas, and the Spanish/Mexican accent of the south Texas.

American slaves were treated horribly. It was called the “Peculiar Institution” because it was a strange system. After a while, the South started to rely on slavery since it was agricultural. The North relied on the cotton from the South to ship to other countries. Once the cotton gin came to the South, they needed more slaves because they were producing more cotton.

Texas’s La Frontera The state of Texas is the second largest state in terms of population and territory in the country. With over 267,000 square miles of territory, the Lone Star State is home to many diverse regions and communities (Brown et al., 9). As a matter of fact, it is stipulated that the state can be divided into up to five different states due to its diversified regions.

A Look in the History of Liberty Hill, Texas The region of Liberty Hill, Texas was the home to a lot of Native Americans while the territory was claimed to be a part of Spain, Mexico and France. After winning their independence from Spain, the territory became a part of Mexico. In a span of three decades territory had changed hands once more and became the Republic of Texas. In the following decades to come, different settlers from all over Europe and the eastern part of the country migrated into Liberty Hill, Texas.