Structured Response

It seems to me that the US is more concerned with spreading democracy in other countries than maintaining it here. The thing that sticks out most to me is voting restrictions. Already we have a problem with the number of eligible voters being significantly higher than the number of registered voters, not to mention the amount of people that actually come out to vote. In the past legislation such as the Motor Voter Act that allowed people to register at the DMV was aimed to incase voter turn out. However, since then voter ID restrictions have been passes making it difficult for thousands of people, legal documented american citizens, to vote. A funny article has the title "UFO sightings are more common than voter fraud" causes me to question the motives behind such laws. Voter fraud is a minor topic in the US, and while I agree that it is important to have legitimate elections, I don't see such laws as beneficial when they are hindering people exercising their right to vote. It seems to me that such acts are intended to prevent impoverished people and minorities from reaching the voting booths. Perhaps they think this demographic is most likely to contain undocumented residents, but I believe it would be naive not to think of underlying political motivation. To actually target a demographic, as these laws do, is disgusting and un-American (in theory, maybe not in practice).

I think social movements outside of the US are only beginning to have an affect on US society. Eventually, when it becomes more clear what the outcomes have been because of the Arab Spring, I believe the US will become more motivated to have similar peaceful movements. Although OWS is still  in the streets every week in NYC, a more focused organization is necessary and possible. (And can I just say I find it hilarious that people call occupiers 'hippies' as insults because hippies were a big part in Vietnam War protests, plus I know occupiers who are nowhere near hippie status).

In America, it seems that civil societies and such organized movements are considered 'cute' but ineffective and unimportant. I'm curious as to how this differs from MENA regions. MENA countries tend to have more extreme problems that affect the entire state in a more... obvious way. Or that could just be me being blinded by the scale of injustices in America. Although many civil societies in the MENA countries may be though of as 'anti-Islam' 'Anti-Arab' or 'Pro-Ameria/ Pro-Europe', in general its either a case of if you support it enough or not. In America, perhaps because it is so diverse and so large, less people get involved in civil society even if they think the topic matters, simply because they think other things are more important or because they think their efforts won't matter. I'm not sure how America has reached that conclusion, since we have always been a country that gets things done by rallying the masses, from the Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement. Occupy Wall Street is the closest we have come in decades to mobilizing out country, but its lack of organization and goals made the movement a disheartening one for many.


In America, we focus on equality, and when we're not focused on equality we're focused on liberty. When neither of these things are being obviously infringed upon, we turn a blind eye to injustices. We don't realize that or democratic society is slipping away, while the rest of the world is gaining on us.