Are you a domestic terrorist?

[Jester]

So, anyone born, raised, educated in this country that hasn't made it needs to face the reason for their failure. It isn't the government. It isn't corporations or business. It isn't inheritance or privilege. It's the inadequacy of that person in the mirror.

There are all sorts of factors that change the *likelihood* of success. Someone from a rich family of smart people from a favoured ethnic group that's well connected in the community is going to produce, on average, a lot more very successful people than a family with none of those things.

But America is still a place where people can start from the bottom and make it to the top; there are no shotgun-wielding crazies (or chainsaws) stopping you from becoming successful with the usual combination of pluck, luck, talent, and a hell of a lot of hard work.

That doesn't invalidate the thesis that social and economic mobility is affected by quite a few innate factors, many of which hold people back substantially - and therefore require quite a lot more to overcome. I would point out that the last few Democrats to sit in the Oval Office demonstrate that the odds can be beaten - the last couple Republicans demonstrate why there are still odds to beat.

-Jester