Role of Politics in American Society

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Impact of media on the American politics
Effects of Religion on American Politics
Effects of education on US politics
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

America is a federal nation whereby there exists a written constitution that outlines the powers of the central government and that of regional governments. Each of these two forms of government has officials and laws that act directly and independently on the American citizens. The president, the congress, and the Judiciary share power reserved to the national government while the federal governments share powers with the state government.

American politics are influenced by several factors, which can be classified into culture and socialization or micro social factors. Lets us have a deeper view of how micro social factors affect the political system of America. Macro social factors include state, religion, capital, work, education, and media among others. These factors may affect the political or the social life of the Americans directly or indirectly.

Impact of media on the American politics

One of the macro social factors affecting American politics is the media, which includes television, radio, internet, newspapers among others. Television is the most widely watched and has a major impact on the politics of America.

For instance, for presidential candidacy, if his name does not appear in the media scenes, it becomes difficult for the public to recognize him. The press holds the power to influence the public on who fits to be their leader. The way in which it frames its reports on candidates and elections determines the public perception on the politics.

Before 2008, only men candidates had managed to lead the United States since most of the presidential roles such as commander in chief were associated with masculinity and the Americans had this attitude from time immemorial. Since 2004, the publication in the media houses had so much influence on who the Americans thought should be their leader and this really affected the preceding general elections in 2008.

The Associated Press articles led the Americans to having a different perception and made them realize that a woman can also lead the country. In addition, the AP articles had this notion of treating a woman in White House as a normal scenario and this influenced even the other media houses as well as the general public (Carroll 12).

For many decades, media has always been very keen on the day-to-day lives of most of the politicians. In turn, most politician decisions are greatly influenced by media because media has a great impact on the American votes. For instance, in 2008, the then Senator Barrack Obama left his church, the Trinity Church of Chicago, in Illinois due to the information received from his political advisors and the public.

This decision was a pure influence from the media houses since they had aired these views for months before Barrack Obama settled on his decision to move as a matter of protecting his political image. He was against some critical statements made by Trinity’s church Revered Jeremiah Wright and a visiting pastor, Reverend Michael Pfleger (Woolford, 2009).

The media has made the American politicians to be very careful with their daily living even more than their political lives. They view that the image the public assumes on someone has a real impact on their decision of either voting him in or settling for a different person.

This norm among the politicians was triggered by the first televised debate between Senator John F. Kennedy and then Vice President Richard Nixon. For instance, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was paralyzed by polio during his term, he ensured that he took all his public photos standing in order to maintain a good public image.

Media has destroyed many politicians’ careers and lives. For example, it disclosed Presdent Nixons Watergate Scandal that lead to his resignation in 1974, it destroyed the political and social image of Clinton after it disclosed his affairs with Monica Lewinsky in 1996, in 2008, New York governor Elliot Spitzer was publicized to have affairs with prostitutes thus he had to terminate his service to the public, among others. Thus for politicians to remain at the top in the US politics, they have to be very keen on their daily lives since the media is ever watching them (Woolford Para 1)

Effects of Religion on American Politics

The United States of America is recorded as the most religious developed nation. Americans have been deeply rooted to religion for years because they find it merging well with their cultural values about freedom of choice and individual initiative.

Religion has a great impact on the US politics and its major role is to caution the government whenever they engage in issues that against the religious beliefs. Religion is capable of splitting or uniting the government and scholars view religion as completely incompatible with politics. This is why the state and religion are independent bodies in America (Dunn 143).

In most cases, people’s vote on their leader is influenced by religion. This mostly depends with the views the politician is supporting and their relevance to a certain religion. The issue of abortion has been bringing a lot of controversy between the political arena and religion.

Such groups as Jews, Catholics, and Protestants have been holding anti-abortion campaigns thus giving the government so much pressure in their decision-making. Actually, the issue of abortion really divided people during the 1984 and 1992 elections. The Democratic Party was an anti-abortion camp while the republicans were supporting on coming up with abortion rights (Dunn 143).

Other areas of concern between politics and religion are issues of embryonic stem cell research and test-tube babies which, most religious people felt like it was against their believes in creation. Catholics have always been against contraceptives, which the government creates awareness publicly in media and press.

They believe that God commanded them to procreate thus they view it ungodly to support such government forums. Issues of slavery have also raised so much tension whereby religious groups like Christianity have always been against them. They campaign for equality among all people and freedom of movement, choice, and expression (Dunn 143).

Effects of education on US politics

The training and the education system in the US has had a major influence on the economy and in turn the US politics. It is viewed that the education system in America needs to be reviewed since it is the major cause of the deteriorating position of the US economy in the world. This is because US is losing its position in industrialization and development to countries like Japan and China and the whole blame goes to the system of education.

Due to the stiff competition in the world market, US politics are calling for a person who can be able to curb this challenge very fast before the situation gets out of hand. A politician who gets to convince the public that he is capable of this gets many supporters since the Americans are not ready to loose their position to the countries they have been looking down upon (Sturm Para 3).

Other areas of concern that are bringing pressure to the American politics are the lower growth rate of gross domestic product and productivity, the manufacturing output, which are all due to the quality of education. Though countries like Japan and Western Europe have not yet surpassed US, they are approaching it at a very high rat thus calling for a political system, which can manage this, which will probably through reviewing the education system (Sturm Para 5).

Conclusion

The American society is closely dependent on the country politics, which determines the welfare of the country many instances. There are several factors that influence the state of politics in the country, thus influencing the decisions of the country in one way or another. During the season of general elections, and throughout their stay, the politicians have to be much updated on the current events taking place in the country to avoid being caught unawares.

The above-discussed factors and the rest interact in a way that one cannot influence the political system without depending on another. Therefore, there is so much interdependence between the culture, socialization, and macro social factors. In the field of culture and socialization, one is able to know about the modern American culture, and what shapes peoples attitude towards politics. As discussed above, the macro social factors are diversified and have a great influence to the politics of the United States.

Works Cited

Carroll, Susan and Fox, Richard L. Gender and Politics. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 2006. Web.

Dunn, Charles W. The future of Religion in American politics. Lexington, The University press of Kentucky. 2009. Web.

Sturm, Rolland. How Do Education and Training Affect a Country’s Economic Performance? 1993. Web.

Woolford, Andrew. Media Effects on Politics. 2008. Web.

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