Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir, Spitzer Identify Ongoing Conflicts

Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir, Spitzer identify ongoing conflicts American politics a debate included "We People."

Definitions of Americans

There is little doubt that contemporary conceptions of who is and what makes an American have changed considerably from their origins during the initial founding of the United States. In fact, these changing definition are frequently a point of contention within both historical and modern politics, as an analysis of We The People: An Introduction to American Politics readily demonstrates. One of the most fundamental notions that the U.S. was founded upon was the idea that with the establishment of a democratic form of government, the people of the U.S. ultimately formed and influenced the future of this nation. The surrounding controversy and arguments about who the people and the citizens of America truly are, therefore, is an attempt to determine who is worthy of the rights and privileges of living within U.S. borders and accessing the considerable power and authority that doing so intrinsically has. An examination of the evolving definitions of what constitutes an American demonstrates that these definitions are ongoing and prone to fluctuate to reflect the qualities of both immigrants and traditional residents.

It is highly important to understand the degree of significance that the authors of the aforementioned text place on political involvement as an aspect of citizenship and a defining connotation of the definition of an American. The authors denote that

Informed and active membership in a political community is the basis for citizenship. Citizens require political knowledge to be aware of their interests in a political dispute, to identify the best ways of acting on their interests, and to know what political action can and cannot achieve (Ginsberg et al.)

In examining the state of contemporary American political involvement, therefore, it is fairly significant that the vast majority of Americans are distinctly alienated from the political processes that take place within this country. Those who are involved in the political infrastructure do not necessarily reflect all of the demographics and viewpoints of the bulk of Americans, for the simple fact that many of them eschew political involvement. Still, it is significant to note that although several Americans actually avoid political involvement, the drastic change in the ethnicity of the demographic of those who are involved in politics, and that of the shape and look of America in general, are attributed by the authors of We the People: An Introduction to American Politics as the basis for the composition of the contemporary American political community. These designations include members of traditional groups of European or Whites, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans, as well as the several subsets of each of these population types and the increasing number of Americans who claim more than one demographic. Although many of these demographics are not represented in the political process, it is even more noteworthy to mention that the Ginsberg et al. have identified age as another critical component of the contemporary American political community. There are more Americans over the age of 37 than those under the age of 37, and the older ones are more likely to become involved in political affairs (Ginsberg et al.).

The U.S. Constitution also plays a significant part in the determination of the criteria used to establish American citizenship, ever since its initial composition in 1787 (No author). The Constitution both facilitates and impedes the incorporation of new members and population types into America by functioning as the defining document for national solidarity and the establishment of legal principles within this land. There are several examples of the constitution operating as both an impediment and a transporter of American citizenship. One of the most salient of these is the legal status of Africans and African-Americans, who had populated the Northern American continent for almost as long as (if not longer than) the European colonialists whose developments they helped underpin. When the constitution was initially drafted, these people had no rights, were not U.S. citizens, and were only considered three-fifths of human being for the purposes of population and taxation. Yet during the era of Reconstruction which occurred subsequent to the Civil War, the 14th amendment of the Constitution provided the vital means of accessing citizenship for Africans and African-Americans. It is noteworthy to mention that throughout the history of the U.S., there have been other documents and pieces of legislation that affected the status of citizenship of people seeking to become Americans. However, most of this legislation was designed to specifically deal with immigrants, and includes measures such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, as well as the National Quota System that was fostered to "limit the numbers of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe" (Ginsberg et al.) in the early decades of the 20th century. But in terms of providing the express conditions of citizenship for those who are able to gain entry to the U.S., the Constitution has historically functioned as the defining documentation on this subject.

Although it takes a significant amount of work to amend it, the U.S. Constitution can change. The definition for who and what is required to gain American citizenship status has also changed significantly since the times when the popular understanding of what constitutes an American was a white, Anglo Saxon male whose female counterparts only enjoyed extremely circumscribed rights. In order to for new population subsets to be annexed into the definition of the popular understanding of an American citizen, those groups have had to bear tremendous burdens -- almost in the same vein that the initial colonial settlers had to bear burdens when first landing in North America. Whereas the latter group had to contend with the raw elements, potentially hostile Native Americans and a distinct lack of preparation -- African-Americans had to endure a legacy of slavery and its violent, tumultuous end -- exemplified by the Civil War -- and a lengthy period of reconstruction to be included in the popular understanding of the definition of Americans. The Chinese had to go through a period of approximately 50 years in which they were barred frm immigrating to the U.S. before laws changed and they began to be included in this definition. Other European immigrants groups, particularly the Irish and Italians, had to endure fairly dastardly conditions of low wages, poor housing and food shortages before they also could be accepted. Native Americans were forced to witness the decimation of (almost) their entire lineage and way of life in order to finally, after decades of wars and decimation, to be accepted as Americans.