While Fresia's contention that the United States failed to live up to its revolutionary democratic promise and instead was captured by the powerful plutocratic elite has appeal, it oversimplifies the process by which the elite take and retain control over resources and governmental power. In reality, at the time of the American Revolution, there was little dispute that the outcome of the Revolution would be to give greater power and freedom to those leading the Revolution; the founding fathers. While the promise of democracy was offered to common men, it was members of the ruling elite of the colonial Americas that made the decisions to declare America independent from England and drafted both the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. Therefore, it is unsurprising that the Constitution does not engage in the type of re-distribution of wealth that Fresia appears to believe is necessary in order to establish a true democracy. For example, had the Constitution not prohibited interference with contracts, States would have had the power to erase obligations from debtor to creditor, thereby redistributing resources among Americans. .

             However compelling Fresia's argument appears on the surface, the fact remains that it fails to make the necessary connection between the disproportionate concentration of wealth in the United States and the failure of the common man to have a real voice in national politics. Fresia concentrates on issues such as voter registration requirements to prove his thesis that the poor majority are actively discouraged from voting. There is historical truth to those statements, as demonstrated by the poll taxes and literacy requirements used to hamper black voter registration in the Jim Crow south. However, the fact is that the history of the world, not simply the United States, demonstrates a history of racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual bias.