Identity Crisis in US Politics: How Party Affiliations Shape Racial Attitudes

Abstract

Nexus between political party and identity When the United States developed the political system, there was automatic recognition of the uprising social groups. When leaders formed the aristocratic republic towards the end of the 18th century, the state system was developed similarly. The state system came about with the divisions between the wealthy and the ordinary people, whereby the poor and people of color felt the differences because the wealthy male citizens had a higher bargaining power in establishing their civil rights. The recognition of different groups has come a long way considering that slavery abolition marked the beginning of black citizen's rights, whereby the government started recognizing women's civil rights. Each of these social groups has fought for recognition in the political arenas. The representation of these groups is fiercely fought for in power through the democratic and Republican Party’s representation. It is in this notion of social groups and alienation to particular belonging that the book 'identity Crisis' focused on the electioneering period and focused on what were the issues that led to the triumph of Donald Trump and the fall of Hilary Clinton (Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck, 2019). There is undoubtedly an identity crisis, and the political class has lately been using it in their manifestos. In explaining Trump winning the presidential elections, the authors argue he (Trump) used a language that those affiliated to his party understood in racial attitudes (Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck, 2019). The contest between Trump and Clinton was mainly to succeed the outgoing president Barrack Obama from the word go. Obama, being an African American, had not done well on his reign, and it is for this reason that Trump's slogan was 'make America great again” (Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck, 2019). From this perspective, one may have been obliged to ask, was president Obama an American? In America, who is an American and who is not? The campaigning strategy for Trump placed many people at crossroads in that there was a clear division between the majority and the minority groups. The whites vs. the rest of the minority groups. Unfortunately, these minority groups, which included the immigrants in the United States, were privately politically affiliated, hence scattered with some trying to fit in the larger groups or stand-alone and recognize. The idea of making America great again, one wondered what point America was remarkable in its history. The slogan alone raised many debates as far as the whites were concerned, the people of color, and different religious groups. The allegations that the white policemen were victimizing the blacks raised debates on whether it should be or be not like that; the Muslims in the united states brought about issues of terrorism and how many more Muslims should be allowed in the soils of the united states. Finally, the more extensive reflection was, were the whites left behind in the diversification of the United States? Through some of these reflections, the book tries to answer that Trump openly gave the answers and assured the whites that they need to take their place back in society. The whites' positions that should be legally and democratically occupied by the whites make a majority in the United States divided amongst other non-deserving communities who should be preferably in their respective countries. In other words, the issue of race was openly debated, whereby Trump was perceived as being in support of white superiority (Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck, 2019). This, according to the book, is what gave Trump a win because he told the whites what they wanted to hear. Therefore, politically, Americans all became aligned to racial attributes, with politicians fuelling the partisan stances differing on their policies and race in terms of inclusivity. For this reason, the authors agree that the motivation of white voters was more motivated by race and ethnicity than they were by economic circumstances (Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck, 2019). Identities discussed in the book. The authors talk of identity crisis not in the pure form of color and whiteness but terms of partisanship. In this context, the people of color...