Democracy and America

The United States is the most powerful nation on earth, politically, economically and militarily, but its political system is in many important respects unlike any other in the world. Aristotle called the rule of the many for the benefit of all citizens a “polity” and referred to the rule of many to benefit themselves as a “democracy”. The term democracy is derived from the Greek words demos (the people) and kratia (power or authority) and may be used to refer to any system of government that gives power to the people, either directly, or indirectly through elected representatives. Democracy is hard, perhaps the most complex and difficult of all forms of government. It is filled with tensions and contradictions, and requires that its members labor diligently to make it work. Democracy is not designed for efficiency, but for accountability; a democratic government may not be able to act as quickly as a dictatorship, but once committed to a course of action it can draw upon deep wellsprings of popular support. Democracy, certainly in America, is never a finished product, but is always evolving. The outer forms of government in the United States have altered little in two centuries, but once we look past the surface we discover great changes. Yet, most Americans believe that the basic principles underlying their government derive directly from notions first enunciated by the Framers. The Framers wanted to create a political system that involved placing the people at the center of power. Due to the vest size of the new nation, direct democracy, a system of government in which members of the polity meet to discuss all policy decisions and then agree to abide by majority rule, was unworkable. As more and more settlers came to the New World, many town meetings were replaced by a system of indirect democracy, a system of government that gives citizens the opportunity to vote for representatives who work on their behalf. Many citizens were uncomfortable with the term democracy because it made them think of people over-turning the government or like a mob rule. Instead, they preferred the term republic, a government rooted in the consent of the governed in which citizens elect leaders to represent their political interests. Today, representative democracies are more commonly called republics, and the words democracy and republic are used interchangeably. Yet, in the United States, we still pledge allegiance to our “republic”, not a democracy. James Madison also agreed as he stated in the Federalist #10 article. Madison states, "The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man”, so the cure is to control their effects. He makes an argument on how this is not possible in a pure democracy but possible in a republic. With pure democracy, he means a system in which every citizen votes directly for laws, and, with republic, he intends a society in which the citizens vote for an elite of representatives who then vote for laws. He indicates that the voice of the people pronounced by a body of representatives is more conformable to the interest of the community because common people’s decisions are affected by their self-interest. The representative democratic system devised by the Framers to govern the United States is based on a number of underlying concepts and distinguishing characteristics that sometimes conflict with each other. These ideas can be described as commonly shared attitudes, beliefs, and core values about how the government should operate. American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty and equality, popular consent, majority rule, popular sovereignty, individualism, and religious faith and freedom. In my opinion, Madison and other Framers did mean to limit democracy to some extent, not that democracy was wrong or bad. They wanted as much power to be given to the people as possible. As I stated before, a republic and a democracy go hand in hand and are very similar so it would be wrong to say that a republic is right and democracy is not right. However, over the years since 1913 our government has become more democratic. The main Amendment that tipped the scales from the national government of the United States being a mere republic to being a true representative democracy was the Seventeenth Amendment. Since 1913, the U.S. Senate has been elected directly by the voters, rather than being appointed by the state legislatures. That makes the national government democratic in form, as well as being a republic. Which in my opinion, is well on its way to being too democratic in some aspects and I feel like Madison would agree with me because it is more democratic then what he stated in his Federalist #10 article, but then I also feel like there are some problematic areas in our country that would almost benefit from being a little more democratic.

One of the biggest problems to me, facing the United States today is there are not enough jobs. Obama is working on it and we have definitely seen improvement over the last four years, but we still need more jobs. There just are not enough of them. Perhaps the biggest problem facing today's workers is that there's not enough work. Today's national unemployment rate of 8.3% (in August 2010), remains well above the comfort level. Add in those workers who can find only part-time work, or the discouraged dropouts no longer counted in the workforce statistics, and the national jobless rate rises to about 15%. It has been said that disappointing jobless numbers may represent "the new normal.” At the very least, it looks like it will take a very long time for us to get back to the levels of underemployment that we had before 2008. Long-term unemployment is another problem Americans face. More than three years after the end of the Great Recession, long-term unemployment remains one of the most serious challenges facing the country. In August, 5.2 million Americans had been searching for a job for more than half a year, accounting for nearly 41% of all unemployed workers. The improving job market has merely dented the number. Last Labor Day, long-term unemployment affected 6 million Americans. This has greatly affected older workers. Many have lost their jobs, and are constantly looking for work and trying to be optimistic, but that is hard whenever they are spending their 401(k) retirement savings because they have no other source of income. They are having to apply for Social Security Benefits and just keep hopeful that soon they will find work. These problems also lead into other problems and challenges like retirement anxiety. Retirement may not be a total bust, but it's no party for those on the job and wondering when they'll be able to stop working. A little more than half of Baby Boomer and Generation X households are projected to have enough money for retirement, even taking into account nursing homes and long-term care. But no doubt the other half has some challenges to face, such as saving more and working longer. Some people think retirement is the top challenge facing workers today. Many older workers would have ready to be retired by now or at least very close in the next few years, but many find themselves worried about the very thought of retirement. It is difficult because just as they approach retirement time all the rules are changing. In addition, many workers have seen pay freezes and pay cuts during the hard economic times. It is tougher to get ahead or keep up for many workers. Many in their 50s saved for retirement based on one set of expectations and then saw the rules change. Many workers age 50 and older lost jobs during the Great Recession and had a hard time finding another job at similar pay. Many had a tough time saving for retirement. Although some workers continue to look forward to receiving a traditional pension check, others are looking at a less stable 401(k) plan. And yes, there continues to be the growing cost of health insurance premiums and health care. Even those who are 10 years or so from retirement are uncertain of how much savings they'll really need to cover the bills. About 28% of "transition" Boomers, those ages 55 to 65, are concerned that they won't be able to cover basic living expenses in retirement much less have any money left over for anything else.

The United States is also facing many economic challenges. Most people are unaware of the easily observable signs of the crisis our country is in. While we persist in our superpower mentality, we have quietly become a second-class country in many respects. We no longer produce what we need to sustain ourselves, we import much more than we export, and we are selling off our assets and taking on massive debts to sustain a standard of living we can no longer afford. Not only was this not the way we became a superpower but it is a sure way to lose this status. The game plan of our international competitors is to render us completely dependent on foreign production, innovation and financing. In losing domestic self-sufficiency, national security and leverage, our foreign affairs will suffer greatly. We are failing even to acknowledge predatory foreign trade practices undermining U.S. industry. Instead we encourage U.S. manufacturers to design, engineer, and produce in third world markets like Mexico and China. We should take direct action to reverse our out-of-control trade deficits. While our regulatory and tax systems have unnecessarily raised domestic business costs, the fundamental cause of the present crisis is three decades of extremely detrimental U.S. trade and globalization policies. We must also carefully manage access to our markets. We should not naively rest on the faith that other countries will hold themselves to our standards in areas such as the environment, labor and competition policy. These standards affect the cost of production. If other countries fail to adhere to these standards, they gain an unfair cost advantage. Access to our markets must be conditioned on a strategic analysis of our own national needs first and foremost. We also have handed our sovereign rights to our domestic markets to international bodies committed to disastrous “one-way free trade” agreements. We are in a dramatically different position from emerging low-wage markets. They have everything to gain, and we have everything to lose. Our policies should carefully protect our wealth and resources rather than simply provide the lowest consumer cost regardless of the impact on our industries and our workers. In my opinion, dramatic new direction is required. Promoting open markets and economic growth abroad will not alone re-balance America’s trade accounts and domestic industrial collapse. Our industries have been so disarmed and dismantled that we now lack the knowledge, capacity and investment capital to facilitate self-sustaining production.

Another major issue is the undemocratic ways of the Electoral College and the problems with citizen voting. The failures of the Electoral College are a government issue, but the problems voting are a citizen issue. If the people had the right to pick the president of the United States then maybe I would consider this a democratic country. I may be being a little over exaggerated, but in all reality the people do not have as much say so in who is president as they think or feel like they do. The United States of America has a presidential election every four years. When the election is going on every registered American over the age of eighteen has the right to vote for the president of their choice. So if our country is democratic, does that mean it's only democratic every four years when we have the right to vote since it's of or for the people? Maybe if the person whose vote towards there favorite president actually counted for something besides the "Popular vote" then it would be considered democratic at times. Even though every person has their right to vote for a president it doesn't actually mean that the "Popular vote" will win and get their president in office. It always comes down to the Electoral College, which is an unresponsive system that does not work as well as it potentially could. Excessive partisanship and excessive politics are the disproportionate influence of special interests on our politics. America has created a far less effective democracy than what we ought to have. I think the system itself can and should be fixed to make the power lie within the people and our elective officials more responsive and obviously both in touch and effective. What we have now in the Congress is the left and the right of both parties dominating. The center isn't heard. We need redistricting reform, campaign finance reform, and we need to be in a situation that Congress is responsive to the people in the middle who form the majority rather than the narrow segment of the electorate on either extreme whom most elected officials cater to. We ought to eliminate caucuses and super delegates. Let the people decide. You want to avoid individual state-by-state rules that could be cumbersome to one group of voters or one candidate. It's just fairer to all to have primaries. We should have a true national campaign. That would help with the democracy part, but the American citizens need to step up and do their jobs as American citizens and vote. They should research about the candidates and take voting more seriously. People say the Electoral College is not fair, but yet some of the same people who are complaining do not even know the first thing about our government. People need to be educated in politics to a certain extent to me. Because if people just go out and vote without knowing about the candidates or just listening to a majority, or not go vote at all, then they are not helping our country better in any way.

Our American democracy is a good thing and our country would not be anywhere close to where it is today without democracy. Our democracy is just facing challenges and the right people need to step up and start making the right decisions before it is too late. American officials and American citizens themselves need to step up and do their part as Americans and know and understand the laws of our democracy, and go out and vote and let their voice be heard. Changes do need to be made, but American democracy is not failed or a bad thing in anyway. The United States is the most powerful nation on earth, politically, economically and militarily, but its political system is in many important respects unlike any other in the world and that is for good reason. Let’s help each other get back on the right democratic track and watch our country flourish and prosper like we all know it can.