Malheur County Community Analysis

Political Culture of Malheur County To understand the political culture of a community, city, county, state, or even country-- one must first have a firm handle on the principles used to identify a political culture. As political culture stands, we have two models used to identify the bulk of the citizens in the political world. These two concepts can be labeled conservative and progressive. The conservative model correlates with a traditionalistic perspective, meaning, this view is best described as one wanting to maintain existing political order and leave the political participation to those in power (Bowman and Kearney, p. 18). This view can be seen wanting less governmental control, meaning less taxes and interference from the government …show more content…
For starters, I was aware that Ontario has faced poverty in the past years, however I had no idea of the legitimacy of the claim. According to an article in 2014 by Oregon Public Broadcasting, Malheur county is actually the poorest county in Oregon (OPB, 2014). The census was able to provide statistical evidence in support of this article, claiming that the average income in Ontario is $26, 512 per household-- leaving approximately 36% of the community in poverty (Census, 2014). The Pew Research Center discovered that in the 2016 election, of those making less than $30,000 annually, 43% voted democratic nationally (Pew Research Center, 2016). This suggests the trend that the majority of impoverished people vote progressively; however, this is still not the case in Ontario as they continue to faithfully vote conservatively. Another key socio-demographic that seemed to catch my interest, was the percentage of hispanics that made up the population in Malheur county. In high school, we were told that our high school demographic was 67% hispanic and this number seemed accurate. However, looking into the census statistics, whites make up around 61% of the population and hispanics only account for 33% of the general population. Similar to poverty levels, minorities are often known for voting democratically or progressively, but it is still not a reflection of Malheur county’s voting patterns. Finally, a consistency arose when I examined the education levels of most people in Malheur county. Malheur county only should to that around 13% of people had a bachelor’s degree when, in comparison, Salem more than doubled that number with 26.9% of people having a degree. This is an area where the socio-demographic finally aligns with predictable voting patterns, those with a