Latent Anti Authoritarianism: The Rise Of The Tea Party

I think that it is agreed by all parties, that our current system of organizing ideas and policies is flawed, in that it brings about division and strife amongst the nations people of America. In this present deplorable state of government, it is expected that the average American shall default to either the Democratic or the Republican side of the political spectrum, essentially eliminating all other parties from viability. Should this be changed, we could unite as one nation, just as the four-fathers intended.

The 1970’s in the U.S. was a period in which we saw a sever lack of confidence amongst our government, and it’s leaders. During this decade we were involved in a war, caught off guard by a Presidential, and political scandals, and was trounced by a severe economic recession. These events have left a lasting impression on citizens as the level of faith in our government continues to plummet. In the writings below I will explain the conditions in our country at the time, and how these conditions led people to a path of feeling embittered.

The public trust in government has declined over the years, and now the people think they can do little to influence the government actions. According to the book We the people by Benjamin Ginsberg, in 2013 only 19 percent of americans reported trusting the government with their decisions in Washington. On the contrary, compare to 1960s and 1970s americans had a lot of more respect and trust for the american government due to the fact that the government did what was best for the people. But now, the trust that his great nation once had has been declining in a

The United States is growing more and more polarized every year. Not only is the government refusing to cooperate with itself, but its very people are splitting into two allegiant parties. US citizens either conform to party ideals or risk losing all representation. This positive feedback loop forces people to polarize their ideas of themselves and others. People are seeing each other as either Republican or Democrat, not the complex mix they really are. America needs to drastically change how it views its citizens and politics.

There is, in this country presently, an ultimate, lingering atmosphere of tension and hostility caused by the political parties. Like static, it makes your hair stand on end and your nerves begin to jitter, afraid to touch anything or anyone in case of that sudden shock. Politics are not spoken of with acquaintances and friends in fear of driving them away with your different opinions. Different opinions are quickly slandered as tyrannical or unconstitutional. This is the prelude to the storm. The Republicans and Democrats have created an identity crisis in the United States, pitting us against them, us against the other party. How? History teacher Michael Blood says “People stick with a party because of their opinion on a singular issue. If their opinion on this issue is supported by the party, then the people will align themselves with that party. Politicians use these single-issue voters to remain in office.” These mercenary voters are victims of an attitude of petty sectionalism, an attitude that is too similar to the party divisions that were so potent in the shattering of our state in the Civil War. It has created a magnetic push away from necessary, healthy discussion. It is the fruit of

Many of Americans has been pretty cynical about politics since Vietnam and Watergate scandal. Reforms that conservatives seek for a very long time to finally achieve have done nothing to repose public distrust of the political class. Two of the reforms - the ban on congressional earmarks and muckle of tourist court opinion which radically deregulated campaign-finance law - have intensified the public's hostile to both politician and the political outgrowth.

In the US, mixer apparent motion from the farewell and right – i.e., from the civil rights drive in the 50s and 60s to the Tea Party movement in more recent years – have pushed both major US party (the Repopulace and Democrats) toward the fringe of the political spectrum. McAdam and Tarrow (2010) nicely illustrate this process with the example of the antiwar movement and its influence on the American party system after 9/11 (see also Heaney and Rojas 2007, 2015). Similarly, McAdam and Kloos (2014) appearance how mixer apparent motion contributes to the radicalization of party posture and to the polarization of institutional politics more generally. Their study is important in offering an in-depth analysis of party on the right of the political

he United States has long been spared a truly authoritarian element in our politics. Since Southern apartheid was crushed and far-left terrorism died away, we’ve had very little organized political violence, and few homegrown movements that manifest the authoritarian temptation.

According to research, eighty nine percent of Americans say they distrust our government to do the right thing, but seventy four percent say the country is on the wrong track. Another eighty four percent of Americans disapprove of Congress. Our Government makes an impact on everybody's lives every second of the day whether it's taxes, or the price on gas. The Government controls everything, but whether they are being honest and telling Americans what goes on behind their closed facility doors is really the question. The non-fiction article, “Do You Trust Your Government?”, written by Susannah L. Griffee and Holly Epstein Ojalvo, offers insight into the topic of Americans and their Government, and how the Government is not proposing what they said. Americans shouldn’t trust our Government due to the safety issues affecting our country, lack of privacy, and not upholding the constitution.

According to Pew Research Center, only 20% of Americans trust the government. This decline has occurred since the 1960s. The percentage of trust proves the beliefs of unequal representation in American citizens. Firstly, the voter turnout in last year’s election denotes this analysis. Secondly, voters in last year’s election felt voting for either candidate did not matter; for their opinions favored no one in power. This grant is to illustrate the problem in our current government legislation is affecting people.

Over time, people in the US have become frustrated with their government. A report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) this year downgraded the

For years Republicans and Democrats have fought for positions of power from the Presidency to State and House seats, they control much of what we do and how we go about doing it but each have their own views. With a split Political System many Americans don’t know who to side with; the parties should be working together but instead have wildly different opinions and continue to fight. From Military Spending to Abortion and Gay Marriage they disagree on much which contributes to why little gets done.

Starting in 1958, American National Election Studies (ANES) began measuring public trust in government by asking participants how often they “trust the federal government to do the right thing.” This question measures Americans’ perceptions of government, but does not quantify the overall functioning of the political system. Regardless, this standard reflects how Americans think the system is running relative to their own attitudes. In addition to this measure of trust, the National Election Survey also determined Americans’ viewpoints on whether the government wasted resources, whether the government represented their interests, and whether politicians were generally crooked. The NES accomplished these measures by asking Americans questions that reflected their perceptions on these principles. By determining these judgments, pollsters gauge how Americans view government in general. When the NES began asking this set of questions in 1964, trust in government was at a high point. However, this favorability did not last very long, as “over the 16 years following Johnson’s election in 1964, political trust experienced a freefall.” Most scholars agree that the Vietnam War had a profound impact on the erosion of public trust. As it became “increasingly clear that the United States was not on

It is a fact that the low opinions parties have towards one another doubled between the early 1990s and now. Pew Research Center say that most (not many but most) democrats have deeply negative views of the Republicans and vice versa. Five thousand Americans were surveyed and over half believed the other party’s supporters are closed-minded and just under half would go as far as using the adjectives “lazy”, “immoral”, and “dishonest”. That’s just differences in political standpoints themselves -- conservative verses liberal views. It’s not to mention the election coming up.

People on the frontier had to deal with whatever life brought them and make the best of it. They learned how to be very individualized, pushing their way through whatever barriers nature presented. This individuality has led Americans to develop a government that facilitates individualism. We, the Americans, are usually suspicious, untrusting, and paranoid of the government because we like to be independent, individually solving whatever problems arise in our path to the goal. This mentality is shown in the nation's protests to the government's increasing tyranny and intervention in our personal lives; however, a changing, growing nation requires changes in government.