Two-party system in Texas - Essay Example

Two-party System in Texas The Lone Star has always had political issues ever since it first joined the United States after the tumultuous wars which made it a part of America. In historical terms, the political history of the state can be divided into two different sections. The first of which comes from the independence of the state in 1836 to the year 1952 where for more than a hundred years, the Democratic Party dominated Texas politics to the point of exclusion of the Republican Party. The presidential elections of 1952 changed that dominance since the Republicans posed a growing challenge to the Democrats in Texas even though the characteristics of the state today lean towards the side of the Democrats more than the Republicans (Young, 2008).

The leaning towards the Democratic Party was evident even during the times of Andrew Jackson since the earliest politically motivated individuals working in Texas were close friends of Jackson with strong ties to the Democratic Party. Even though the elections at the time were dominated by personality and charisma issues more than political leanings, those who won elections in Texas were more likely to be democrats than anything else. Even after the civil war and the reconstruction era, the individuals who settled in Texas were Democratic Party sympathizers and the Republicans could do little to gain a lot of power in Texas (Young, 2008).

Even through the progress of the First World War and the depression, democrats held on their power base in Texas due to “the oil, land and financial barons who traditionally kept conservative Democrats in power (Time Magazine, 1966, Pg. 1)”. However, things changed after the Second World War when the increasing importance of oil placed the Texas democrats in a conundrum. While the democrats suggested greater control of the federal government and the improved need for looking at the greater good, the Republicans presented a different picture with regard to the natural resources of the state (Young, 2008).

The rights of the state with regard to the natural resources found in the state were supported by the Republicans who offered the idea of less federal interference in state matters. This idea became quite attractive to many people in Texas as they did not appreciate the democrats handing over the resources of the state to the federal government. Further, the issue also weakened the Democratic Party in Texas as factions within the party had different ideas as to how the issue should be handled.

From 1976 to 1992, the democratic presidential candidates could not take Texas and even to this day, the democrats and the republicans have a battle when it comes to Texas (Young, 2008). Thus, from being completely dominated by the democrats in matter of a political party representing Texas, the state went to having a two party system much as the rest of America has with regard to the political machinery of the nation.Word Count: 518Works CitedYoung, N. 2008, ‘Handbook of Texas Online’, [Online] Available at: http://www.

tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/DD/wad1.htmlTime Magazine. 1966, ‘The Two-Party Party’, [Online] Available at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842861,00.html