Sociological Analysis of the Presidential Election of 2012

Sociological Analysis of the Presidential resource of 2012 from a Structural Functionalist Perspective and a Conflict Perspective. As the presidential pick draws closer, we could vividly view our society from favorable conflict and structural functionalist positionings. The democratic do by helps us to ask why do we accept and shove democracy, how does it influence our social patterns and functions and how does democracy re anyy work for the stability of our society.In this essay, I leave behind analyze the presidential election of 2012 using sociological perspective with emphasis on manifest and latent functions, class, race and gender conflicts. It is a bemuse it offn fact that democracy and demography be like Thai twins that evictnot be separated. These demographics include gender, race, age, disability, wealth, employment status, and locations. Politicians have used, and still using, these elements to know which group is the best to appease. On gender issue, the two prominent policy-making riveies, Democratic and the Republican Parties, know that distaffs voters make up 52% of the US electorate (Bloomberg word).These women tend to vote for any political c solely(a)er that caters to their needs. Also, race is part of political consideration. The African-Americans, Asian-Americans, the Latinos and White are different choose blocs which the politicians must greet. fit in to the online Hispanic News, the recent release of National Census data confirms that 50 million Latinos are part of the American electorate. Not only the Hispanics are increasing in population, the African American grew by 1. 6% in 2010 era the Asian-American are recently declared, by CNN, as the fastest growth minority in the US.Another demographic to be considered is age. Steven Thomma and William Douglas of McClatchy Newspaper said, Statistics show up that older white and rich voters are more reliable electorates than the four-year-old voters they tend to vote Republican Party. The question now is how all these fit into our sociological perspective. I give start by aspect at the manifest function of our democracy. In truth, democracy has helped to stabilize and also create unity among citizens. It has become a recognized and accepted process which everyone look forward to periodically.It is intended to involve all qualified adults in picking their next leaders. The sense is that once everyone is involved, then the majority will be pleased with the government. However, as much as there has been undecomposed governance through democracy, there have also been roughly unintended consequences too. These consequences can be seen by examining the latent function of our democracy. Today, one can hardly watch TV or listen to the radio with forbidden perceive or hearing the fracture that exists in the political system of our country.Citizens have been divided into two or more groups modestd on their party affiliations. The divide is so obvi ous that parties are not willing to agree on any issue. The result is a stagnant government, and no sightly policies have been passed into law. It is hard to know if this fraction is recognized but we for certain know that it is unintended. Aside from stability and loyalty which democracy brought into our society, we have seen disagreement that generates conflicts. These conflicts can be seen in class, race and gender.On Class, according to Real cleat Politics, the Pew Research Center found in 2008 that six divulge of ten Americans say that the Republican Party favors the rich. Real constitute Politics went further to state how the Republican policies give tax evolve to the rich and the Democrats want tax breaks for the middle class and the poor. This situation has created a permanent wide gap between the rich and the poor. Another conflict is race it is not surprising that the political parties are trying to woo the ethnic group with the highest population.The Democrats are trying to lure the Hispanic with immigration reform charm the Republicans are trying to solidify their White base with a promise of deportation of illegal immigrants. Both sides are sharp marketing their ideas to each race for votes. According to US Catholics News, these problems have conduct to family division, causing a heavy toll on children and families of Hispanic residential district. The Hispanics are not the only group suffering from this political division, The African- American, the Asian-American, the Indian-Americans and all other minorities are all struggling to fit into the social structure.For all of these, one can easily see both the minorities and the majority voting along their party line. The minority ethnic groups tend to vote for Democrats while the majority ethnic group votes Republican. Another well observed social conflict can be seen in gender. The gender issue has brought out many social issues. From womans health, contraceptives and abortion, parenthoo d and womanhood, the list goes on and women are taking their stands on issues that concern them. The women are the largest electorate in US.LA Progress, an online News Journal, after series of research, simply concludes that Women will decide 2012 Presidential Election. For this reason, politicians are coming up with policies that will benefit women. However, not all these policies are favorable to all women. For example, the pro-life advocates want abortion abolished, the pro-choice advocates wants abortion to be part of preventive healthcare programs. The debate has generated so much heat that some abortion clinics were burned down and some abortion doctors were murdered.With all these issues in mind, pro-choice women mostly vote for Democrats while pro-life women mostly vote for Republicans. Men have been the agitators for gun rights. Policies are fashioned to give them freedom to own guns without any restrictions these policies have direct to the availability of street guns. Th e lovers of guns mostly vote republican while the pro-gun dictation group mostly votes for republicans. It is important to mention here that National discase Association, the best known body that represents gun rights advocates, has both male and female members.Above all, this election is very unique because from the look of things, the minorities especially the Hispanic and women are increasing in population and they will determine the election outcome. The Hispanic and women mostly vote for Democrats while Asian-American, the fastest growing minority, mostly votes for Republicans because of their button-down values. In all, the political landscape is definitely shifting from what it used to be. We will all see the political party it favors in November. References Bloomberg News