America is a country with various cultures and races working together to advance the current economic, social and political structures. Everyone plays a part in its making through voting, leadership, and social work among other things. However, the American’ culture and benefits people experience today came from various decisions made by the founding fathers of the nation. Apart from that, the struggles and abuse experienced by the forefathers enabled the next generation to have a better life. Hence, the three most interesting topics in the book are American Political Culture, Federalism, and Civil Rights. These entities make up the American history and current events that continue to divide people. The paper will look into these entities separately and discuss its past, current and future prospects in the United States of America.
American Political Culture
The chapter provides an overall view of the relation between Americans and the government. Its perspective was to show the need to have a government in place that will guide Americans in future (Ginsberg, Lowi, & Weir, 2011). Most Americans have little faith towards the government due to the various disappointments made along the way. However, history seems to suggest a contrary opinion, especially during the nation’s early political years. Since America gained independence, there is a lot that came through regarding laws and policies. They are key elements in driving the nation with the three court of arms: legislative, executive, and judiciary, guiding people and bringing justice.
Democracy is a key feature in the American government since it provided opportunities for other cultures and races to join forces with the natives (Ginsberg, Lowi, & Weir, 2011). Its democracy provided opportunities for marginalized culture and races to fight for their rights such as the civil rightist movement by the black Americans. Apart from that, it provided opportunities for Americans to interact with the international market by opening doors to new opportunities. These major steps proved to be beneficial to the whole system as the country continues to grow economically, socially and politically. However, not all is well as there are several issues registered in the community such as lack of equality, democracy, and liberty.
Federalism
The chapter discusses the federal government and the powers given to it by the constitution. The constitution provides laws and policies to govern the government, its practice and its people (Ginsberg, Lowi, & Weir, 2011). It is a key component towards the running of a country as it permits and objects all practices in the country. The federalism contained in the constitutions provides certain restrictions and policies to the national government and state government. However, the national government supersedes the laws made by state government since they control the nation. In a brief, the federalism in the national government provides better laws and policies tailored to meet the requirements of the nation. The state governments have powers on accepting or refusing laws and policies in their system.
The powers provided to the local government by the Constitution govern the political world to the entertainment sector (Ginsberg, Lowi, & Weir, 2011). With the constant changes observed across the nation, it is quite hard for the national government to keep to date with them. Hence, the government had to strike new deals with various organizations and individuals to carry out some of the federal laws. It brought about great changes in federalism as from 2001 with federal grants, cooperative federalism, and new state controls coming into effect. The new federalism policies outlined brought about changes in state control, though it benefited a few of the people especially those in its path. Overall, the federal laws are quite influential to the national and state governments in their enactment of laws and policies.
Civil Rights
America provides rights to its citizens irrespective of their culture or race. However, most of these rights came from constant demonstrations and struggles to make them law. The civil rights movement centers on the black Americans fighting over the years to fit into the country (Ginsberg, Lowi, & Weir, 2011). The black Americans entered America through slave trade in the early 18th century. At the time, they lacked proper rights to defend themselves over the harsh treatment from their masters. According to the whites, the blacks were an inferior race and deemed to be like animals. However, a few black slaves learned their master’s language and became rebellious to them. Such people include Frederick Douglass, who fought for the free slaves and the mistreatment by the whites in the societies. Together with other black scholars, they filled their cases to the government for the recognition as equal human beings and established their hardships under their masters. Abraham Lincoln was the first president to end slave trade as it was against the human rights to fair treatment. With time, the slaves became free from their masters, but the whites could not comprehend their presence in the community.
The Civil rights struggles extended to the 19th century when the black American fought against segregation by the whites (Ginsberg, Lowi, & Weir, 2011). It leads to the development of key leaders such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks, who were instrumental in the changes. The development of civil rights trickled down to the rights of women in the society by removing the stereotypes bestowed upon them by the society. Gender and women discrimination became a universal fight with various organizations fighting for the empowerment of girl-child education. Despite the changes made over the years, some rights are yet to take full absorption in the system, while other continue to arise with time such as the gays and lesbians rights. Overall, the topic outlines the civil rights movement as a never-ending struggle for the parties involved and the major obstacle being the perspectives made by people.
Current Issue in Civil Rights
The civil rights issue continues to be a major issue in America, affecting mainly the black people in their economic and social environments (Demby, 2014). Despite the laws placed in the constitution, the whites continue to stereotype black people with several mistreatments recorded over the years. In fact, some of the public institutions and bodies such as the police are often in the spotlight over unlawful shootings and mistreatments. According to Matt Pearce, the stereotyping of black people began in the 1980s when police raided their homes in the middle of the night and randomly arrested the young men without any evidence (Pearce, 2015). The mistreatment became an everyday activity and parents feared their children walking about alone. The major stereotype was drugs and arms procession by the black people. It was a common excuse used by the police to conduct random checks and raids in the community.
The problem is yet to persist as the stereotypes continue to erupt in modern times. In his article, Pearce uses the story of the late Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black child killed by a white officer on suspicion of being armed (Pearce, 2015). What was worse is the police officer walked free from the trial without facing any charges. Alicia Garza recorded another situation where George Zimmerman, in 2015, shot at a 17-year-old black American, Trayvon Martin. Similarly, Zimmerman walked out of the courts as a free man to the surprise of the public. These two incidences demonstrate the violation of civil rights, which the courts continue to ignore, irrespective of them being in the law. Despite the contestant demonstrations made by the black people, the courts seem to ignore the matter.
Solution to the Problem
With the laws being in place and quite clear for everyone, the problem lies on how people treat each other especially the white people. The major problem is acceptance of living with people, treating each other equally as stipulated by the law. However, the problem seems to come from the white people since they continue to stereotype the blacks. Garza notes that the mistreatment of black people especially the young ones will be a major catastrophe years to come and burden the future generation (Day, 2015).
The time to act is now and making progress is quite easy. People should understand that America is for everyone who wants to make an impact towards the community. Hence, if one has a good heart towards the country, it is their right to fair treatment and policies. People should object to stereotypes handed to them by the society and use their conscious to justify their actions. It is a high time that police officers also faced the law, which they uphold. The court should not be lenient in any way towards how they treat the white cops. If one makes a mistake, they ought to face the same justification as others. Turning a blind eye to these simple structures will only make the issue worse than how it currently stands. In conclusion, Americans should uphold peace and equality in their day-to-day lives.
References
Day, E. (2015, July 4). #BlackLivesMatter: the birth of a new civil rights movement. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/19/blacklivesmatter-birth-civil-rights-movement
Demby, G. (2014, December 31). The Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement. Retrieved from Politico: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/12/ferguson-new-civil-rights-movement-113906
Ginsberg, B., Lowi, T. J., & Weir, M. (2011). We the People: An Introduction To American Politics. New York: W.W. Norton.
Pearce, M. (2015, March 5). Modern civil rights movement expands on classic methods. Retrieved from Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-selma-civil-rights-movement-20150306-story.html
