Kinda hard to read this seeming stream of consciousness response, but I'm probably not qualified to do so anyway since I'm not much of a history buff (although I will point out that Philadelphia was under a black mayor during the MOVE incident you referenced - not that this fact means much, all things considered).

It seems to me that people seeking positions of power are rarely the type of people who actually should have that power, and the examples you cite are just some of the many experienced by the world at large. Humanity sucks. We may be more "intelligent" than the rest of the animal kingdom we evolved from, but we're still animals at heart - with all the "survival of the fittest" mentality baggage that fact comes with. Unless and until we somehow outgrow that background, we will always be short-sighted, instinctively selfish, and therefore ultimately self-destructive beings as a whole. This is why so many of us have little hope for the future as we watch the inevitable self-destruction happen yet again - only this time with a level of destructive power we've never had before and which we're unlikely to survive as a species.

Perhaps I'm self-deluded in having believed that - despite our not insignificant faults - America was at least as a whole trying to set a better example for how a human society can operate. If that ever was true, I have precious little hope of ever getting fully back on that path - at least not in what remains of my - or even my children's - lifetime.