It isn't like most of us sit around enjoying it. It has grown and changed over the decades, even centuries. To understand America and the large systems we have you have to start at the Civil War and work your way forward. The years history complicate in subtle ways few appreciate.

The balance of the federal government and the states, and the three branches of our government operate and interact in complex ways. Though we are definitely one country, and you can generally rely on things to be consistent from one state to the next, they are their own legal entities and things that you can do in one state can land you in prison in another.

Factor on the modern age of media and the gravity of the interests that want to keep things certain ways and it gets easier to see why it is so hard to shift our society as a whole -- it truly is quite diverse, even if predominantly white.