People Have Multiple Identities.

If One Of The Drafters Of The Declaration Of Independence Came Back Today, He Would Not Be Surprised About What Americans Were Saying And Believing And Articulating In Their Public Statements. It Would All Sound Rather Familiar.

Democracy Is Premised, In Some Measure, On Majority Rule, And Democracy Is Difficult In A Situation Of Concentrated Inequalities In Which A Large, Impoverished Majority Confronts A Small, Wealthy Oligarchy.

Certainly Here In The U.s., We've Had Fundamentalist Movements That Have Taken Very Critical And Hostile Attitudes Toward Immigration And The Assimilation Of Immigrants Into Our Society And Culture. So These Tendencies Are Fairly Universal. The Problem Is What If They Get Out Of Hand And Become The Dominant Factor In A Society, Which Can Only Lead To The Oppression Of Minorities Or Even To War With Neighboring Societies With Differing Cultures. That's Why It Seems To Me It's Important To Try To Keep These Tendencies Toward Extremism Under Control.

The Question Really Is What Will Be The Central Focus Of Global Politics In The Coming Decades And My Argument Is That Cultural Identities And Cultural Antagonisms And Affiliations Will Play Not The Only Role But A Major Role.

Hispanics Speak Spanish Or Portuguese, Which Are Languages We Americans Are Familiar With, So It Doesn't Seem To Pose The Same Types Of Problems As Arabic-speaking Muslims Do In Europe.