Race’s influence on politics

Politics has been reshaped over the decades by of race and identity.

Demographics, especially race, has been an essential factor in party alignments, with typically people of color aligning with the Democratic party.

The Democratic party has made their base and ideals around minorities and the idea of having leaders that represent people of color by being a person of color.

Racism has been a sensitive subject all throughout American history and the Democratic party has focused in on the fact that there is still racism within our government.

People who identify as a Minority have expressed their need for someone in government who looks like and represents a minority in a high position in government to feel as if they are being heard and Kamala Harris, former vice president and 2024 presidential candidate, fit this role.

On the other hand, the Republican party has taken a difference stance on race. While they recognize that there are people of different races, they do not make a large focus around race and believe that racism is not present in the government.

While minorities have typically aligned with the Democratic party, majorities have aligned with the Republican party based on their beliefs surrounding race.

However, in very recent years, there has been a realignment of the Republican party to include ideals that were typically more Democratic, like having extreme health concerns for America.

New concerns have arisen like technological privacy protections and AI that push out racism concerns.

As the world progresses and becomes more accepting of one another, race concerns have slowly diminished in the public opinion as more concerns have risen.

The Democratic party has always focused on the minorities and has in the last decade become very outspoken about LGBTQIA and has left some of the other democrats out in recent years with their main focus shifting from race to sex and gender ideals.

Many people have seen the Democrats as ideals from the past like believing in a high prevalence in racism. However, they do believe in new gender reforms that are considered to be very ‘modern.’

The Republicans have seemed, to many people, out of touch or in the past because of their more conservative views but has brought in many younger generations and focused on concerns that affected many Americans like the economy and immigration.

Because of the traditional views we have on each party, we expect all politicians to follow all the ideals in the party; however, not every politician is going to believe everything within their party, which can lead to problems over how to handle situations and appease the publics expectations.

Race has played a huge part in politics. However, as the world changes and becomes more accepting than we were in the past, race has diminished in the public’s concern over politics, possibly bridging the polarized gap between the two parties.