America no longer 'shining city on a hill'(2)

ENTRENCHED FLAWS

According to a November poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, 68 percent of Republican voters are still unwaveringly convinced that victory was "stolen" from their "president" in an election one year ago where no evidence of significant voter fraud was found.

That means tens of millions of Americans continue to consider the occupant of the White House for almost one year to be unconstitutionally holding the nation's highest office.

With the midterm elections one year away, the level of confidence in the election results to decide the fate of a notoriously divided Congress should raise alarm bells for electoral officials, many of whom, regrettably, are also extreme partisans.

A November poll from CNN showed that 65 percent of Americans overall are confident that next year's congressional elections will be conducted fairly, but that includes a mere 31 percent who are very confident.

Fed with various kinds of outlandish conspiracy theories, Republicans are far more doubtful than Democrats, with only 40 percent saying they are confident that the upcoming contests will be carried out fairly compared to over 80 percent for Democrats.

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan loved to describe the United States as the "shining city on a hill" so much so that he used the phrase repeatedly throughout his political career.

In his presidential farewell speech, Reagan once again referred to the "shining city," claiming "if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here."

However, in the past few years, when the former U.S. administration advocated for the building of walls surrounding the "shining city," there were no planned doors for so-called "coyotes."

Even though the construction of the border wall has been halted by the current administration, the migrants at the borders still face an uncertain fate. 

Juxtaposing the photo of migrants being chased by border agents on horseback and an animation illustrating the "state-of-the-art" steel slat border wall, it's hard to tell which one prevails in satirizing Washington's self-image as a land of "liberty" and "opportunity."

Meanwhile, social disparity, systemic racism and a growing wealth gap have torn the country further apart, compounding the crisis of American democracy.