Why the American Democracy Does Not Work
November 16, 2012
Why the American Democracy Does Not Work
Democracy in America does not work. The system has failed too many times and when problems do get addressed, they get addressed by using tactics that break the Constitutional guidelines. Slavery almost broke the Union and if President Abraham Lincoln did not violate the Constitution, slavery would have destroyed the Union. Economic crises test the limits and powers of the government. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stretched the Constitution with the New Deal. The Supreme Court, not the House of Representatives choose George W. Bush for President over Al Gore in the 2000 Election. The financial crisis in 2008 showed a failure of the U.S. government to regulate Wall Street.1 These cases demonstrate the flawed structures formed by the Constitution. Though some have tried to change the system, the system flaws lie in the foundation of system: the Constitution. No matter what party holds the majority or the White House, the U.S. government cannot continue to function without systematic change. The American democracy needs to transform its system to work in the 21st century and this can only be done by restructuring the U.S. government. I will argue this from a Jacobs-King/Lazare perspective, analyzing the failures of the structures of the U.S. Federal government throughout history. The Constitution justified slavery and nothing in the Constitution could prohibit it, showing how the system’s failure to protect minority voices. In fact the Constitution did not allow Congress to interfere with the slave trade until “the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight.”2 Nothing stopped slave holders from owning salves or trading slaves. Even as other countries abolished slavery, the U.S. could not because the Constitution stopped them. The Framers of the Constitution decided not to deal with slavery, making their system flawed from the beginning. “Slavery was the quadruple whammy
Why the American Democracy Does Not Work
Democracy in America does not work. The system has failed too many times and when problems do get addressed, they get addressed by using tactics that break the Constitutional guidelines. Slavery almost broke the Union and if President Abraham Lincoln did not violate the Constitution, slavery would have destroyed the Union. Economic crises test the limits and powers of the government. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stretched the Constitution with the New Deal. The Supreme Court, not the House of Representatives choose George W. Bush for President over Al Gore in the 2000 Election. The financial crisis in 2008 showed a failure of the U.S. government to regulate Wall Street.1 These cases demonstrate the flawed structures formed by the Constitution. Though some have tried to change the system, the system flaws lie in the foundation of system: the Constitution. No matter what party holds the majority or the White House, the U.S. government cannot continue to function without systematic change. The American democracy needs to transform its system to work in the 21st century and this can only be done by restructuring the U.S. government. I will argue this from a Jacobs-King/Lazare perspective, analyzing the failures of the structures of the U.S. Federal government throughout history. The Constitution justified slavery and nothing in the Constitution could prohibit it, showing how the system’s failure to protect minority voices. In fact the Constitution did not allow Congress to interfere with the slave trade until “the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight.”2 Nothing stopped slave holders from owning salves or trading slaves. Even as other countries abolished slavery, the U.S. could not because the Constitution stopped them. The Framers of the Constitution decided not to deal with slavery, making their system flawed from the beginning. “Slavery was the quadruple whammy