Social media reveals much about how people think. In short bites thought to be quotes of brilliance, whole worlds of thought and ethics can be released.

Take, for example, this comment made on one of my articles: “It’s amazing how a little isolated island hick wants to lecture about US politics!”

This comment came supposedly from a person born in Atlanta.

First, this is classism, where America the great is so sophisticated that a person from a little island can never understand, let alone appreciate or articulate the nuances of the American system.

It is bigoted when persons have such a presumptive bias that anyone outside of America, particularly if from a small island, is essentially deemed as an uneducated idiot. They make these type of statements and assumptions without knowing where or if the persons are educated, or if they have spent time and were exposed to the North American systems, or even directly involved with the politics.

They classify persons as “other” simply because they don’t come from America.

The big civil war being expressed politically in the United States is in many ways over this precise issue of nativeness versus globalisation or universality.

OK, I will accept that there is not a 100 per cent unanimity or unison of thought within each party, but the general trend of opinion today is that the Democrats see a plurality of persons making up America and consider diversity as one of its strength, while the Republicans are holding on to a shrinking base of nativist support.

The progressive idea of America is that of a welcoming arm inviting all to bring your dreams and make America what you want it to be. At times, by looking from the outside, greater possibilities can be seen, also systemic flaws often are better seen from an impartial observer.

The world is interconnected — always has been — but it is more tangible now with electronic communication. The idea of “mind your own business” is an oxymoron because what we spew in the air in one country affects the world. In other words, what happens in your yard is my business also. What happens in America is everybody’s business, but, understandably, the issue of classism seeks to establish or maintain elitism in various forms.

The world of business has to maintain itself from what it sees as the rising expectations of the workers and the middle class. So they like to shut down talk such as empowerment or broadening the economic pie. The politicians hate the notion of egalitarianism and broadening the franchise of participation — “leave us alone, let us govern”.

The ideal of openness and debate is still just an ideal, the truth is, real debate is structurally limited owing to victimisation. The US has had more than a century of world dominance, often with exploitative means to the extent it was supposed to be a universal norm.

“Do unto others as you would want them to do to you” was not their foreign policy. It was more like do unto others what we need to protect our interest before they are able to do unto you.

Unfortunately, there are poor souls who have not caught yet the universal trend towards one world and one humanity. The construct in the US with the electoral college has outlived its time and may be a significant challenge to overcome in this 2020 election.

It may be the last electorate to have a balance that could possibly favour right-wing, nativist groups. The population trend is veering strongly towards plurality, but the natural balance where that becomes the absolute factor may not be in effect in 2020, which will be determined purely by the will of the American population.