Sulwan Almarzouq
Jesse Latour
English 101
March 13 2014
Politics of Orange
County in California
Orange county in California is a county that is well known for its
staunch but diverse conservatism. However, the current political, social and
economic landscape of Orange County has changed significantly as a result of
immigration flows. To better understand the local politics of Orange County, it
is important to first describe it demographic landscape. Demographically, the
Orange County comprises of a diverse communities and races. It is the county
accommodating about half of the immigrants. These immigrants comprises mainly
of the Asian Americans and the Latinos. The Asian Americans account for about
one-fifth of the population in Orange County whereas the Latinos is made up of
more than a third of the total population. Most of the Asian Americans come
from Vietnam. Significant percentage of immigrants reside in major cities in
the county such as Buena Park, Fullerton and Anaheim. Politically, most of the
immigrants supports the Grant Old Party (GOP). This is actually the other name
for the Republicans. However, the article written by Wisckol (2012) reveals
strange revelation about the politics of the Orange County. The article admits
that Orange County's Asian American voters, led by Vietnamese Americans, are
more likely to register as Republicans than Democrats. The statistics concur
with this in the sense that 36% of Asian Americans in Orange County register as
Republicans and 27% as Democrats (Reft, 2013). In the last election, it was
found that President Obama, who is a democrat, secured 48% of the votes from
the county. Romney won in the county.
However, the study by Wisckol (2012) indicates that despite majority of
the immigrants registering as Republicans, most of them support democrats. This
implies that the party allegiance is relatively loose and that is why the
members of the county can easily switch the party. Analysis of voters based on
the city they reside also shows that virtually all voters from different cities
tend to support the Democrats. This is strange because some cities whose
residents registered as Republicans ends up supporting Democrats. As stated, the politics of this county has
undergone a lot of changes. Initially, the county used to act as the social
glue that held together region largely bereft of public spaces. History
indicates that Republicans have not been doing well in the County. This is
evidence by the failed Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The
county was also once very volatile in terms of political stability. This is
because Asian Vietnamese, were in a war with US (Wisckol, 2012). This
destabilized the county significantly. This lead to development of different
laws and acts (Wisckol, 2012). Example of the acts formed include the War Bride
Act of 1945. This was formed to intervene for cases where G.I.s wanted to marry
the Asian women they got while in service during the U.S. and Vietnam War. Another act is the Soldier Brides Act of 1946
and the McCarren Act of 1952 (Wisckol, 2012). Generally, the major reason why
most of the immigrants, which comprises mainly of the Asian Vietnamese tend to
register through Republican is that Republican Ford Administration facilitated
the immigration of the Asian Vietnamese into U.S. by coming up with Indochina
Migration and Refugee Assistance Act and also putting in place programs that
would assist in settling the refugee. Such programs include the Camp Pendleton situated
in Southern California. However, as the tension settles, most of the immigrants
are beginning to support the Democrats. This implies that the immigrants have
no political allegiance (Wisckol, 2012).
References
Wisckol, M. (2012). Wisckol: O.C. Asian Americans - GOP in
name only? Retrieved from: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/percent-378258-asian-american.html
Reft, R. (2013). What's
Old is New: How Orange County's Conservative Past Created its Demographics
Today. Retrieved from: http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/intersections/how-orange-countys-conservative-past-created-its-demographics-today.html
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