10 I CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnAVOIDING DEMOCRACY by Thomas FlemingnDoes America exist anymore, or is the nation only anfantasy concocted out of old Frank Capra movies,ncivics classes, and pamphlets from the Department ofnEducation? The weight of the evidence suggests the latter.nTwenty years ago — ancient history by the standards of thenpress — a considerable number of young men who refusednto fight in Vietnam were willing to riot in the streets for thenrights of Indians, Southeast Asians, and various Americannminorities; leaders of the American Indian Movement havenfrom time to time claimed the rights of sovereignty for thentribal fragments living on reservations; Japanese Americans,nwhile asserting all the rights of citizenship, sue the people ofnthe United States for the mild, although not always justified,nsafety measures taken by Earl Warren and President Rooseveltnin the aftermath of Pearl Harbor; and for severalnnndecades illegal aliens have been swarming across our southernnborder, finding refuge with dishonest fruit-growers andnreligious communities willing to sacrifice the public good tonthe inner light of personal revelation; their children, accordingnto the courts, must be educated at the local taxpayers’nexpense because an American education is a basic humannright for all the world’s population. The rumors aboutnAmerican education must not have made their way down tonMexico.nNational identity and the privileges of citizenship havenbeen in conflict since the war for American independence.nWere loyalists traitors to America or faithful subjects of thenKing? If they stayed long enough to be judged traitors, didnthey have the rights of citizens after the war? (The answer isnyes.) Were Indians American citizens or were their tribesn