Paul Fryes discusses how the American politicians ignore the problems of the Black people as one of the largest disadvantaged groups in the world and how the Black people cannot create a response to the ignorant politicians by developing a political strategy as a group of all Black voters. As known, political parties give attention to the groups providing a financial contribution to their campaigns, the size of voters in the group, and loyalty of voters in the group. The main aim is to collect the highest possible financial support and collect most of the votes for politicians. The author gave the example of the elections when Clinton and Al Gore raced for the presidency. In this election, Clinton and Al Gore ignored the Black voters, and even the disabled people got relatively more attention from both of the political parties (Fryer 9). The author generalizes this situation to all the elections in the United States. As being the largest democratic country in the world, the democratic development is not in favor of the disadvantaged Black people.
The presidency candidates take the issues related to religion, family values, abortion, and homosexuality into their agenda. However, we have not observed any politician discusses the poverty of Black people or the discrimination against Black people in the United States. Also, developing income inequality or inequality accessing to the opportunities equally is not among the preferred discussion subjects for the politicians. Subsequently, the democracy experience has created a white-oriented politics in the United States (Fryer 28).
On the other side, Black people could not develop a response to the white-oriented politics in the United States. They are loyal to one party, and they ignore the alternative parties effort spent for getting their education. It is possible to claim that Black people have also been ignorant of their problems during the election times. Analyzing the Obama's election process, inequality access to health services were discussed for the first time in the American history and as a black presidency candidate, Obama suggested global health insurance for all. After the global financial crisis, the government cut some of the funds provided for education and social support. Black people were blamed of misusing the social supports provided for them, and they lost some of their social supports. Therefore, Black people are not able to express their problems in the political arena, and they cannot threaten the politicians by not voting for them (Fryer 47).
Furthermore, being relatively more involved with the issues related to Black people, the parties lost some of their white voters. Therefore, in the two party system politics, the parties prefer ignoring their problems to get the white votes (Fryer 41). The issues related to Black people are discussed under general headings involving the whole society, and discrimination against Black people is ignored in the American politics.
The historical development of the American politics indicates that the two main political parties were relatively more interested in expressing some issues for Black people, and they were relatively more promising. However, even in the South, they realized that they could get relatively more votes by implementing a white-oriented policy (Fryer 86).
The Black voters were mainly for the Republican Party before 1935; however, after the new deal, Black people were divided into two groups, and some Black people moved to the Democratic Party because of the policies for developing equal opportunities for them. Even some Black politicians had the opportunity to find relatively better positions in the American politics. However, Black people still could not develop a well-prepared response to the white-biased American politics (Fryer 119). In the last a few decades, the Democratic Party has received almost 80% percent of the Black votes, and the Black people could not have been active enough in the party for fighting for the Black rights.
The political parties develop their electoral strategies on persuading people who have a political position between two parties. These voters are named as persuadable voters or swing voters. Many of Black people are strongly for a party and most of the Black people vote for the Democratic Party. Therefore, the parties do not see Black people as swing voters, and this situation decreases their importance in the electoral strategies of the political parties (Fryer 130).
An interesting result from Fryer's book might be that the politics is about domination and subordination of conflicts. In the United States, there is two main races and white is more dominant than black. Therefore, the politics in the country is designed around the dominant groups of the country (Fryer 139).
The Black politicians have had some positions in the Democratic Party and they have spent effort for developing rights for Black; however, they could not develop a mainstream policy relevant to Black people. However, the political experience exhibited that Black people could not get not many rights especially designed for them. The rights gained were the ones provided for the disadvantaged groups in general. The Black politicians have mostly spent effort for not losing some rights for Black people because each time the government makes a decision of cutting the budget for some social services, Black people loses some of their financial supports from the state (Frymer 185).
The political parties have developed a strategy for gaining the votes of Black people, and both parties consider Black votes as a secondary vote resource for them because many of Black voters are not swing voters. The other groups including relatively more radical Christians, lesbian and gay groups and some other social groups do not face the treatments that Black people have to deal with to get rights. For instance, every electoral period, we observe that the politicians discuss the rights of lesbian and gays openly in the debates; however, we never hear that the politicians talk about the equality for different ethnicities (Frymer 182). Also, the case of Mexican-Americans is interesting in terms of defending their rights. As known, the Republican Party is against giving relatively more rights to the immigrants. The Mexican-Americans provided a high level of support to the Democratic Party and compared to Black people; they could create a relatively more active political strategy (Frymer 186).
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party have different characteristics, and the Democratic Party is comparatively more successful in terms of economic growth and correspondingly economic development. Black people could receive relatively more financial support during the Democratic Party governments. That might be an important factor behind that Black people are more into the Democratic Party (Bartels 6). However, it is not possible to claim that the two parties have a certain policy for fighting poverty in the country.
While 15 million families (considering that there are four people in a family at average, 60 million people) receive less than 25,000 USD in a year, only 5% of the total population has an annual income over 185,000 USD. Many of the American families have been part of working poor (Bartels 7).Depending on these statistics and many other similar data; it is possible to claim that the United States have an issue of income inequality and opportunity inequality. Though the American economy is the largest economy in the world, and the economic performance of the American economy is comparatively more successful, it is not possible to observe an equal distribution of income among people (Bartels 14).
Many Americans believe that the inequality is necessary for creating a dynamism and competition in the markets. Therefore, if an individual spends enough effort to utilize an opportunity in the national economy, then this person can get rich and a desired social life. On the contrary, if an individual prefers being lazy, then poverty is inevitable. Depending on this approach, being poor is the preference of individuals to many Americans’ opinion (Bartels 15).
Depending on the approach explained in the previous paragraph, the American society could not develop an egalitarian approach to the American economy and American politics. Most of the Americans has not requested an egalitarian approach from the political parties, and the political parties have developed their approach depending on the political demands of individuals. Strangely, Black people could not develop an approach or a strong demand for equality. Even, we can claim that any of minorities were not supporting an egalitarian approach in politics; instead, the minorities have tried to get rights special to their situation. Subsequently, fewer people were for an egalitarian approach. Considering that the United States have developed a fear of socialism due to the cold war times, the egalitarian approach reminds many people the socialistic approaches. Finally, the American society could not develop an approach defending equality, and this has been reflected in politics and economy.
Another important fact in the American economy and politics is that some groups have more power than the other social groups and minorities. The representation of the minorities in the Congress or other institutional structures is not something common in the United States. Also, considering that some states have some racist regulations in the state constitutions to very recent years, it is not possible to say that the United States has an anti-racist management rules. The police killings and the treatment to Black people afterward in the recent years indicate us that though the United States is a democratic country, but it is not so different from many developing countries with some racism and discrimination.
Another striking point for the American democracy is that though there are two main groups of whites and blacks and the American management ideology is built on a white-oriented approach, no one talks about anti-racist and equality-oriented development theories in the United States other than some small political groups.
Also, the labor market treats Black people differently from Whites. The studies indicate that the average earnings of the black and white individuals with similar characteristics are certainly different, and Black people can generate less income than White people at means. Also, there exists a career barrier for Black people, and they cannot get good positions in public and private sectors easily when White people are comparatively luckier to get these positions. Eventually, the statistics from labor market gives enough proof that there is discrimination. Even though discrimination is considered as something illegal, White Americans do not care these laws in many cases, and proving discrimination is truly difficult in the court.
Consequently, the United States introduces itself as the largest democracy in the world, and even sometimes, this country intervenes other countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and many other Middle Eastern countries for democratic reasons, it does not have a well-developed democracy. Black people living in the United States have the same citizenship rights similar to the other ethnicities; however, in the real life, they do not have the same opportunities. The income inequality is the tip of iceberg and inequality is an issue that is not freely expressed by minorities in the United States. The most recent events against Black people in the United States seems to start a new and relatively more extended discussion on inequality issues in the country. If the politicians cannot develop a satisfactory response to the killings by improving conditions for Black people, the country might get into a domestic conflict.
Works Cited
Bartels, L. (2008). Unequal democracy. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Frymer, P. (1999). Uneasy alliances. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
