Well, to begin with, the the United States has never been completely democratic even at the best of times. If you run the clock back 50 years+ full rights were

Well, to begin with, the the United States has never been completely democratic even at the best of times. If you run the clock back 50 years+ full rights were denied to many minorities. This was not microaggressions. It was full out refusal to treat people equally based on race. For example, my first grade class in Alexandria, Virginia was in a segregated school. It was appropriately named Robert E Lee Elementary. Alexandria desegregated in 1966 and I went to school two blocks down the street instead of across town. For more on how uneven progress in rights has been I highly recommend "The Republic for Which It Stands - The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896" by Richard White. [0] It's a weighty tome but helped me see through a lot of the myth-making about American Democracy. Also, at least some of the issues dividing the nation seem like replays of disagreements that were never resolved after the Civil War. [0] https://history.stanford.edu/publications/republic-which-it-stands-united-states-during-reconstruction-and-gilded-age-1865-1896 https://history.stanford.edu/publications/republic-which-it-...