Being Born Into the American Dream Increases Your Chances for Acquiring It...Duh.

One of the biggest obstacles to leveling the playing field in America is the part of the population, who as former football coach Barry Switzer says,

"are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."

Unfortunately, this similar thinking group is not only large in number, but having been "born on third base" has the power and money to make and enforce the rules.

Most who fail to recognize or are loathe to admit their enormous head-start in life more than likely did not struggle financially, are white, Republican, and more than likely find Bill O'Reilly intellectually stimulating, fair and balanced and even truthful. Shallow, status conscious, self-absorbed and elitist, these individuals will always believe people succeed based on the merits of their accomplishments rather than the social class into which they were born.

As harsh as that may sound, there must be an element of truth as it does not take a genius to comprehend that it's much easier to succeed born into a white, financially sound, "educated" "Leave it to Beaver" atmosphere rather than being born into the "poverty-stricken" projects to a crack-addicted mother, an incarcerated father, and having to worry whether a stray bullet will permanently disqualify him from attaining the "American Dream".

I don't know much about Barry Switzer, the man however Republican J.C. Watts, Switzer's former quarterback and the first black congressman elected to office in Oklahoma described Barry Switzer in the excerpt posted from his book, What Color is a Conservative? .

Nevertheless, whatever else Barry Switzer did or didn't do he certainly summed up why American society will find it hard to achieve anything but a veneer of democracy.