Post Racial Democracy

The main obstruct to US democracy is not a foreign threat, terrorism, nuclear arms, or anti American sentiments. It never has been and it will never be. The main obstruct to American democracy is the internal conflict between the Americans and those who are considered lesser Americans. To be clear the Americans are those that can trace their main ancestry to the continent of Europe. I do not use the term white in this instance because as census numbers show a growing number of Hispanic/Lationos categorize and self identify with the term white.

Far be it from me to tell anyone who they are but for the sake of clarity and traditional understanding of words the people of South America are no more white than they are Spanish, a term which the Latino youth sometimes apply to themselves.

Instead the Latino/Hispanic population can be lumped into a group that has many names but for this essay will be known as lesser Americans. Populating the group of lesser Americans are the racial minority groups of America Negroes, Native Americans, Asians, etc. However it is worth nothing that I would not include Jews among the group as even though Israel is viewed as the homeland of the Jews, Europe has been where the economic and traditional roots of the modern American Jew lies. Simply put due to economic, cultural, and political reasons the Jew can be viewed as a American and not a lesser American, despite being part of a ethnic minority. 

With all that said there is racial tension between the Americans and the lesser Americans, and to an extent tension between the different groups that make up the lesser Americans.

I should also note at this point that the term lesser American speaks to the inequality under the law and unequal access to education and job opportunities. There is no surprise or secret in the gap between Americans and lesser Americans, know to society as the gap between whites and minorities. That gap is not only substantial but also widening.

In order for a democracy to work there must be rule of law and equality for all. Compared to other nations America is indeed one the most free nations in the world, however America's claim to glory comes not from a comparison with Saudi Arabia but from the claim of American exceptionalism. America in actuality when compared to the promise of America is to be a democracy that gives protection to the minority against the tyranny of the majority, however this is not put to practice. The racial and economic tensions palpable in the United States makes a stable democracy not one of  participation but one of dominance and exclusion. Democracy is to get its footing from inclusion of all. Yet the fact that historically the minority, be it Negro, woman, or otherwise were excluded from participation. Why even today we hear of plans for voter disenfranchisement in the state of Ohio. The current president himself addressed the issue an the effect it may have on the upcoming 2012 election. This is not the first and last example of mass voter fraud and disenfranchisement. I need not be remind any ethnic American of Florida in the 2000 election.

America is a country of hostile waring ethic camps and let us be under no illusion, as 'Time' magazine recently reported there has been an increase in black and white interracial marriages, however whites and blacks still do not see eye to eye on the basic issues of discrimination, equality, and the need for affirmative action and other social programs. The democracy is not depended on all people agreeing but it is dependent on all people being equal.

With a historically racist and broken judicial system, a collapsing inner city education system, an an economic system catered to the elite, one would be hard pressed to say that Americans of all ethnic backgrounds are treated equally. With a voting system that looks to disenfranchise lesser Americans are treated like risks to the democracy. That is because, America views lesser Americans as risks to the status quo. The status quo being Americans on top and everyone else scrounging and scraping at the bottom. Politically the lesser Americans have been blocked out. There are only two political parities in American of which lesser Americans are forced to find their voice in only one. Yet still that one party is over overwhelming a platform for the Americans.

If lesser American have unequal treatment under the law, unequal education in the schools an lesser opportunities in the economy how is it to be expected that the concerns and agenda of the Americans and the lesser Americans is to be the same? More still how are the voices of the lesser Americans to be heard through a representative or direct democracy in which their numbers are trumped by the self serving majority.

Democracy does not work in such a racially divided nation. It is not that democracy will not work in a racially diverse nation it is simply that a racially dived nation will agree on little and tear a nation in different conflicting directions. In a democracy the majority rules, and when the majority constantly contains the same group an the same ideology then democracy becomes little more than a facade of legitimacy for the ruling group. Here in America there is no doubt that the Americans are the ruling group and the lesser Americans serve as the 'token' for a one sided democracy.