I don't know how anyone was ever optomistic about its future.
The USA is arguably the greatest democratic experiment in history and yet it took one war of independance, one war of 1812, countless other skirmishes, and a civil war before things cooled down.
And this is all between white people from the same homeland praying to the same god.
I don't care how many troops you got, how much mortar and stone you erect, or how many democratic institutions you create. A nation that is as diverse and new to democracy isn't going to just settle down inside of a decade. History teaches us that only a unified democratic movement or revolution has the chance of creating any kind of stability and cooperation in a nation's formative democratic period. Just enforcing it wont work.
Its sad to say but diversity is the crack of gunfire.
__________________
|