The Myth of the Melting Pot

The classic paradigm for thinking of the “American experience” involves theuse of a “melting pot” or “patchwork” metaphor. The basic idea is that the USis a single entity comprised of a wide variety of ethnic/ social groups. Thismetaphor in turn is used to support the view that the US is a Democracy: a placewhere “your vote counts” no matter who you are.However, to me, an examination of the real socio-political hierarchy in the USreveals that this entire “patchwork” ideology is a myth perpetuated in order toconvince the general populace that they somehow matter or have an impact onthe US political structure and proposed legislative policy. Indeed, the “patchwork” metaphor itself is founded on a false assumption: thatthe significant differences between the US citizenry are social or ethnic in nature.Let us consider some of the major issues that “divide us” and how they reallydistract us from the primary class structure that determines one’s place in the USsocio-political structure. The most common traits or differences emphasized in the media are:

1)race2)gender 3)political orientation4)religious beliefs5)social views (guns, abortion, etc)

The average person believes these issues to be critical in determining wherehe or she fits into the fabric of American society. I propose that all of these areactually “Shadow” issues: issues of great emotional import on a personal level,but which distract away from large-scale national issues that impact

everyone

inthis country (what’s going on behind the curtain). Please understand, I am not saying that issues of race or gender or whatever are irrelevant. What I

saying is that these issues are used to segment us intosmaller groups of people based on specific interests/ personal issues so thatwe fail to see the BIG issues that dominate

all of us

. After all, it’s much easier todistract people when they’re not united but fighting amongst themselves. Indeed, the 2008 election illustrated this more than anything. Critical issues were

mainly shunned in order to focus on minor-issues such as whether women wouldvote for Hillary Clinton simply because of Gender or whether Barack Obamawas “black” enough to be the first black President. Imagine how different the political process in the US would be if the following hadreceived mainstream coverage during the ’08 election: 1)The US financial system is largely insolvent courtesy of an unregulatedderivatives market that is 50+ times the size of the US GDP.2)Real incomes in the US peaked in 1972 and have been in a steepdecline ever since courtesy of outsourcing and the US’s shift from amanufacturing economy to a financial services economy (in 2003 nearly$1 out of every $3 dollars made by a publicly traded company went to thefinancial sector).3)Nearly 80% of all bills passed by Congress between 2004-2008were “suspension bills,”

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bills in which only 40 minutes of debate areallowed, no amendments can be made, and only two-thirds majority voteis needed to pass.Those are just a handful of the issues that concern

every

American. In contrast,race, gender, political orientation, even gender are Shadow issues: issuesthat divide us and keep our attention rapt because they elicit strong emotionalresponses and agendas.Indeed, let us consider how these Shadow issues segment the population. Beloware some data points regarding the various groups created when one divides theUS population in terms of gender, race, political orientation and the like.

IssueGroups Created

Gender151 million women, 146 million menRace228 million White, 46 million Latino, 37million African American, 13 million Asian,3 million IndianPolitical orientationRepublican 90 million vs. Democrat 85million (notice this only adds up to alittle over half the total US population)Religious Views217 million Christian, 3 million Jewish, 2.4million Buddhist, 1.7 million Jehovah’sWitness, 1.4 million Muslim, 1.4 million Agnostic

Just a brief look at the above data reveals that the issues of Race, Gender, andReligion trump Political Orientation in terms of significance. It’s also worth notingthat each of these “Shadow” issues breaks the US population into one primarymajority and several minorities.Here are the three largest majority groups as a percentage of total USpopulation:

Majority GroupPercentage of Total US Population

White75%Christian71%Women50.9%

I propose that the real division amongst the American people is based not onsocial issues (race, religion, political views) or biological issues (gender). Ibelieve the real divide is based on LAW.Remember, the US as a political system is entirely based on a complicated legalframework. And while the boundaries erected by race, religion, even gender,have begun to blur, the legal boundaries are as rigid today as they were the daythe Constitution was framed. With that in mind, by law, the American public is broken into two groups of people: 1)Individuals2)Legal entities or businesses

Under American law, a business entity receives the same rights as an individual.It can own property, it has freedom of speech… in fact, a recent Supreme Courtruling permits corporations to directly spend on political campaigns just likeindividuals. This means that Goldman Sachs and Exxon Mobil are now freelypermitted to use their billions in direct donations to political candidates. However, while having the same rights, individuals and business entities havevery different responsibilities. Let’s say I go dump a gallon of oil into a local river.

For the sake of this discussion I am solely focusing on corporations, however, unions and largeassociation groups can also be considered within the “Big Business” category .