The democratic system works in that a ‘black’ man is now U.S. president, but the real proof for the system to show that it is, indeed, working depends on what the ‘black’ president can and will do in terms of correcting the racial, gender, and class inequalities in American society. The election of a ‘center-left’ African-American president was a political phenomenon. Political solutions do not immediately translate to social solutions. Obama’s political will is the turning point  that is needed if social inequalities are to be solved. He is merely a starting point.

Obama knows that the ‘middle class’ is a huge crust of American society. Empowering this crust is giving a more plural force to effect his promised ‘change.’ It is a wisely strategic move on the part of Obama to harness the strength and capacity of the middle class to help him influence the entire country on the changes he wants to enforce. This will be the benefit of a multiplier effect.

However, politics and political power are only a part of democracy. The inequalities of race, gender, and class – all social problems – can only be solved by cultural change. If Obama can have his multiplier effect in the hands of the middle class that he wants to support, this cultural change can still be possible. What America really needs in order to change is a pluralistic effort and movement to overturn the adverse components of the different tides of history.

Racial, gender, and class inequality are evidence that something is amiss in America’s democracy. Yet, a ‘center-left’ African-American president took office with a mandate and the political capital to change the capitalist economic system. If he is even allowed to do that, isn’t it proof that the system works?

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Via The Atlantic