The Dichotomy Of Economic Inequality In The United States

One of the most fundamental orthodoxy of American political life, is the dichotomy between democracy and capitalism. This dichotomy stems from the tension of individuals trying to achieve economic prosperity, while the community is trying to achieve relative political equality. There is much debate about whether in our current state of economic inequality and disparity, political equality can be achieved. The nature of this debate stems from the different ways in which democracy is defined. Many scholars, including Howard Zinn have defined democracy operationally rather than conclusively thus creating a focus that goes beyond political institutions and addresses the quality of life of the citizens. This focus on equality and fairness of outcomes
In fact, whether argued from a procedural or substantive viewpoint, any reasonable person would agree that there are legitimate issues caused by a friction with capitalism, that make us far from an ideal democracy.
The emergence of economic inequality has become an increasingly important issue in American Politics. In the United States today the richest, one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined. This vast amount of economic inequality, poses an inherent threat to procedural democracy. The most fundamental way that citizens influence the government is through the election of public officials. Despite being essential to any democratic society, in the United States, there are voter identification laws that undermine this most basic principle of democracy. These systemic barriers to the ballot box disproportionately target and effect racial minority and poor voters. This discrimination has been historically recognized, and in 1965 Congress responded to voter disfranchisement of racial minorities by passing
This makes logical sense, as at a glance the administration of elections and the voting process seem strictly regulated with little room for elections officials to exercise discretion. A closer look, however, reveals multiple points at which election officials make important choices. These choices range from where to place new voting machines to how to assess a voter’s identification, to how much assistance to offer the disabled, elderly or minority voter. This massive amount of individual choices opens the door for implicit bias, and this can impact decisions regarding how election resources are distributed. For example, on election day in 2004 in Columbus, Ohio 15,000 people left the polls without voting due in large part to decisions made by election officials about who was likely to vote, and how to distribute election resources. These decisions often affect people of different racial groups and economic status differently as African Americans are more likely to be questioned about their identification and to live in areas with longer voting lines. In fact, in 2003, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and other groups noted that older voting devices that were prone to error at twice the rate of newer voting devices were still in use in largely minority counties in California. While eighty-one