Political Volatility in the United States: How Racial and Religious Groups Win and Lose

The unexpected shift from the election of Barack Obama and the  post-racial hope to the racial confrontations in the Trump era begs the  question: Why did such a big volatile swing happen in such a short  period of time? Uncertainty reigns in volatile political times. This  book aims to provide a systemic model for understanding how political  volatility throughout the U.S. history has had its root in two competing  racial and religious groupings. Moreover, the groupings grounded in  white supremacy and egalitarianism have collided, contested, and  facilitated the configuration and reconfiguration of the atomic  political structure. As demonstrated in this book, the antagonism  between the two competing identity groupings led to a history of  political volatility in the United States. Contrary to the endless  “political deadlocks” suggested by the scholars of American political  development, this book explains how and why the two orders persist,  reach peaks of volatility, and why one temporarily achieves prominence  over the other. Going beyond the simplistic view of racial and religious  hierarchy, this book provides an account rooted in structural tensions,  strategic imperatives, opportunities, and threats on collective  actions.