My Political Biography

Public socialization is the process by which we teach and learn our political knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values, and habits of behavior.
Family is the most important agent of socialization. Parents transfer their political ideologies unconsciously so that their children develop their fundamental attitudes toward politics. Because of this reason, political conservative orientation is difficult to alter once it has been embedded.
The influence of church and schools play a significant role in a child's political upbringing. This influence is usually conservative. Students are not as exposed to political demographics and are taught mainly to just vote as their democratic participation with a free enterprise system.
Media in Texas is mainly conservative due to the large contributions in advertising from businesses. But since technology has advance and exposure to internet has broadened the liberal/conservative spectrum. Some of the main factors that might influence an individual to be a conservative or liberal in Texas, I would have to say, would be ones ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic status. These would determine how ones family thinks, what schools and churches they go to, and if they can afford to have access to media (i.e. internet, Television). If they were Anglo-Americans, African American, Asian-American would play a significant role in politics given their history with America's government.
Basic agents of political socialization that have influence my own political views would have to be my family and media. My parents, being successful business owners, lean more towards conservatism. Of which was the only ideology I knew growing up. But with so much exposure through peers and internet, my political ideology has skewed from that and has become more liberal than conservative. Growing up in an Asian American Catholic family, I've always been taught that my political ideology is conservative. My parents always urged me to vote for "Republicans" because we are Catholic and business owners. But as I grow older and understand all the political issues and form my own thoughts on them, I realized that I disagree with some things that the conservatives believe in and agree with some liberal beliefs.  My political ideology is in between conservative and liberal at the moment. I have not found a political ideology that I can completely relate to yet and I'm hoping this class will help me define my political ideology as an adult and to expose me to all the different things that are happening in the government right now.