Religion, Gender, and Race in Political Parties
Dr. Cross speaks to audience about many factors in choosing a new President of the United States.
Ashley Fuquay
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: News
Because of the ongoing presidential election, Dr. Malcolm Cross spoke at a brown bag lunch to a small group about the importance of race, religion, and gender in political party settings at a brown bag lunch hosted by the Center for Diversity Initiates. He covered the history of political parties so the group could understand what was happening in the present from an educated prospective.
"The Chinese like to curse their enemies by saying 'I hope you live in interesting times,'" Cross said. "It occurred to me that despite the fact the Chinese attached a very derogatory meaning to that phrase, we do, in fact, live in interesting times from the point of view of a political scientist or political historian. Not only are these times interesting, but from their perspectives we're in hog heaven. Data is being generated by the truckload analyzing the primaries."
This is the first presidential election that a woman or a black man has a reasonable chance of being elected president of the United States. Hilary Clinton is a 45 percent of the democratic vote and Barrack Obama has 44 percent. Also a Mormon has not come as far in the election process that Mitt Romney did in four decades. Romney recently suspended his campaign.
Democrats originally emerged in the 1830s from the Democratic Republican Party originally created by Thomas Jefferson. Malcolm said the Democratic Party has always had the image of 'sticking up for the little guy' by being the party of the common worker. During the seventeenth century they fought for a small government and conservative spending, taxes and debt. They also believed in states' rights to have power over the people because they were more close to home and better able to discern what was best for the people.
According to Cross, Republicans evolved from the Federalists and Wig Parties, being the party of business and the 'haves and haves more'. This party claims its roots from Alexander Hamilton, a founder who believed in a powerful industrial nation.
"The Chinese like to curse their enemies by saying 'I hope you live in interesting times,'" Cross said. "It occurred to me that despite the fact the Chinese attached a very derogatory meaning to that phrase, we do, in fact, live in interesting times from the point of view of a political scientist or political historian. Not only are these times interesting, but from their perspectives we're in hog heaven. Data is being generated by the truckload analyzing the primaries."
This is the first presidential election that a woman or a black man has a reasonable chance of being elected president of the United States. Hilary Clinton is a 45 percent of the democratic vote and Barrack Obama has 44 percent. Also a Mormon has not come as far in the election process that Mitt Romney did in four decades. Romney recently suspended his campaign.
Democrats originally emerged in the 1830s from the Democratic Republican Party originally created by Thomas Jefferson. Malcolm said the Democratic Party has always had the image of 'sticking up for the little guy' by being the party of the common worker. During the seventeenth century they fought for a small government and conservative spending, taxes and debt. They also believed in states' rights to have power over the people because they were more close to home and better able to discern what was best for the people.
According to Cross, Republicans evolved from the Federalists and Wig Parties, being the party of business and the 'haves and haves more'. This party claims its roots from Alexander Hamilton, a founder who believed in a powerful industrial nation.
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