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Kenisha Gaddist, Kyle Ponder, Jorge Fuentes, Aaliyah Thompson

Ms. Turner
AP Language
26 April 2014
Characterization of America
America is a country that consists of people of different nationalities and ethnic groups.
For years America has been known as a melting pot. In Thomas Paines argument from Rights of
Man, he states that America is just and as a nation the people are unified, however, based off of
his opinion, this does not entirely hold true in todays society.
Thomas Paine stated that there was concord between the people of the U.S. this seemed
to be true in what America is founded on, but in actuality, there is no actual unity between the
people. Look at the school system in America, students in schools self segregate themselves.
This may not be intentional, but it happens. The students in modern high schools seem to
separate themselves into groups that seem familiar to them. The modern student in high school is
the perfect example of why Thomas Paines statement of America having concord is wrong.
Thomas Paine addresses Americas political system and its unbiased policies and
practices as the reason for our nations concord. This however does not hold true nor did it ever.
Politicians gerrymander districts in order to serve their purposes. The voting system is archaic
and the judicial system favors the wealthy. Gerrymandering is a long standing practice in our
political system. Gerrymandering is when a district is redrawn or drawn from the start in order to
defuse or weaken an opposing political force. This practice stifles the representation of each
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voter. The voting system is also of a much older time. When the nation votes on a president our
votes are tallied together for each state and the Electoral College then decides where that states
votes will go as a whole. This system was created so that ill informed ignorant voters could not
vote someone into office that is not qualified. The system may have made sense at the time, but
today a voter can easily inform themselves via the internet or television and most voters have
received a competent education. This practice now only holds back the nation and its concord.
Presidents can take office without even having won the popular vote. The judicial system of both
Thomas Paines era and my own, also favor the wealthy. Wall Street executives launder drug
money and break many laws and never see a single day in a jail cell. Instead, the government
inflicts fines which are just passed onto consumers. The government of our nation does not just
make concord possible, it also does the very opposite. It separates and pigeon holes the citizens
in ways that cannot be done by any other entity.
Many people would pose Americas success through the eras that its existence is only
possible because of our government and our shared interest of individual success. Many
countries like Austria Hungary and others in Africa have tried to combine many other culture,
races, and creeds and have failed terribly. Thomas Paine attributes this success to effective
government and an almost inherent concord. This however is not true. America has survived not
because the government has facilitated but because there is room for all. Europeans originally
migrated for religious, economic and political reasons. America simply provided the space for all
the distinct groups to interact as little as possible. Eventual tolerance began to form but that is
only because all bodies of people are given the opportunity to separate themselves. The
governmentally began to resemble this after the fact. Groups like the Quakers are a good
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example of this; they were tolerant of other religions long before the government saw the
importance of it. Thomas Paines view point has an inherent flaw, in that it is backwards.
In conclusion, Thomas Paine characterization of the government does not completely
hold true to the modern world.