They also found that in colonial America, and afterwards, the system was predominantly controlled by an ethnic set of elitists, Anglo/English landowners of the Piedmont who largely ran government.
About a century and a half later when my Irish set of ancestors arrived, they found they could control their political environment by exercising ethnic power through big city political machines. Frank Hague of Jersey City, for example, once bragged, "every person in Jersey City or one of his relatives is on my payroll."
My German ancestors were Lutherans who were certainly not part of an Anglican church establishment. The Irish were Catholic and excluded from their predecessors' circles by virtue of their religion.
It goes without saying that Jews were physically, culturally and economically segregated, largely for religious reasons. It is not surprising that Jews, as with the other groups, reacted the same way, by sharing with their own ethnic/religious group whatever opportunities and advantages that came their way.
To some degree, however unevenly, the overall lesson of the 30 years war was absorbed, indeed it was expressed in the very first amendment of our Bill of Rights that has guided every ethnic and religious group to some degree since.
Now come the gays, why are we to believe they should behave differently?
