The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States expresses, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The Preamble is the opening statement for the Constitution and it states the reasons for why the Constitution was established. The Preamble was written to give significant implications for how the Constitution was to be interpreted and applied by making it clear that the U.S was to be a democracy with the people giving the country its power.
The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This document was created to lay down the ideals for which the United States was to be founded and based on, that everyone is entitled to the same form of liberty. The Declaration of Independence wished to express that the country was meant to be a promise for justice and freedom for its people.
With a nation founded on liberty, equality, and justice for the people, the question must be asked whether the United States has followed through with its founded ideals. Throughout the course of the country’s history, these values can be seen to be a major influencer and reason for many conflicts. The answer is no, the United States has not lived up to the ideals that the founding fathers wished America to be like. The United States can be seen, time and time again, to have denied many these fundamental rights, examples including the struggles for racial equality, justice in the workplace, and women’s equality, the Vietnam War, etc.
After the Union won the civil war in 1865 and put an end to slavery, the United States at this time was trying “to make way for civil (if not social) equality for African Americans.” With the end of slavery, the African-Americans were given their freedom, but the cruelty of prejudice from the white race still persisted throughout the nation due to the southerners unchanging views and thoughts on white supremacy. This terrorism led to separate but equal, in the late 1870s to mid 1960s. This segregation is also known as the “Jim Crow” era between the blacks and the whites. The governments in the south instituted laws known as the Jim Crow segregation laws, which granted African-Americans their right to marry, own property, and sue in court, but it also made it illegal for them to serve on juries, testify against whites, etc. These laws prove to show that reconstruction failed to secure the freedom of black Americans and was followed by a long period of inequality. In the end, these Jim Crow laws still put African-Americans in the whites control by granting them their “freedom” but to a certain extent. The struggle for equality in the United States can be seen once again over a century later with the civil rights movement. This movement which began in the 1960s, is where many African Americans began to realize that separate was not equal and therefore, began to fight for their equality once more. Although not everyone’s opinion on African Americans changed and white supremacy is still believed in by many, the civil rights movement is the breakthrough where African Americans finally gained the equality they deserved.
The Industrialization era “brought about unions and division of power among workers. It also brought out the greedy side of business men; the need for money at the expense of workers. Industrialization caused the rich to get richer but the poor to barely make ends meet, creating urbanization.” Industrialization is what prompted what is known as the “Gilded Age” where the “elite class would gain their wealth by bringing about a consolidation of the economy by ruthlessly eliminating competition and while attempting to force their idea of economic order on the unregulated economy.” This brought upon the beginning of the economic inequality between the workers and businessmen. The workers began to lose their economic security with the business men “soldiering” their employees and not treating them fairly. The employees began to not get enough for all the work they were doing and with all the competition between the “elite class” of business men, the employees weren’t even guaranteed their jobs. This is where the idea of justice for everyone comes into play. This era is where many people began to be taken advantage of by the business men because in order for these men to gain profit, they needed to keep the cost of labor down, therefore they needed “to pay as little as possible in wages and benefits and to pay as little as possible to establish humane and safe working conditions.” This led to the employees not getting the proper justice they deserved for all that they did.
In the case of women equality. men have always held power over the women and they didn’t think to share this power because it was assumed that women were unable to “handle the pressures of life outside of the home.” Due to this reasoning, women were discouraged to vote, unable to vote, and were excluded from politics. The women’s job, according to society, was to raise children and keep the house in order. This is an example of how because of gender, women were forced to take on a sort of power shortage compared to those of the men and therefore were seen as less than their male counterparts. Women began to realize that “the issues that had denied them status in movements, that had created impediments and roadblocks to their careers or their advancement were things they held in common with other women. And they developed a growing awareness of their position as a subordinated class. And many decided they would do something about that.” With the birth of feminism which “argues for equality and democracy,” many women became activists and fought the “mainstream male-dominated society.”
These struggles for justice, equality, and liberty have shaped the United States and its people’s views on what freedom and the rights of every citizen should entail. These ideals for which the United States was founded can be seen to show that the ideals for which this country was created on have never been fulfilled and don’t seem to be fulfilled in the recent future. Although things have changed for women and African Americans they still struggle with being treated unfairly by those who still see them as less than. This can be seen to be happening again with the terrorism resulting in Muslims being treated unfairly because of their religion. It cannot be said, given many examples in history, that the country has ever become the nation our founding fathers wished it to be.