In the Name of Democracy

In today’s society the America people believe in the idea of democracy. From decade to decade,

American people have fought wars and sung daily pledges of allegiance to honor the United State’s name and principles. Democracy is defined as having power held by the people, who may rule through the freedom of speech by electing governmental representatives. The U.S. is not a true democracy. In fact, the U.S. Constitution was intentionally written to prevent the expression of people’s will.

Perhaps, Americans dislike the realism of their political system because it falls short of being a proper democracy. With non-democratic practices and outcomes, and inconsistencies in American politics, the U.S. is not considered a true democracy.

Democracy promises the allowance of a fair vote for all the eligible population in order to better the country. Gerrymandering has allowed the government to manipulate the boundaries of an electoral constituencies. In 2014, during the Midterm election, it was recorded by the Washington Post that Republicans were apart of eight out of the ten most gerrymandered districts in the United States. For example, it was stated by The Atlantic Journal-Constitution, that “As a result, districts from the Illinois 4th to the North Carolina 12th often look like spilled inkblots rather than coherent voting blocs. There are many people who say that the U.S. is the birth place of democracy, in truth, the U.S. has been

turned into a non-democratic country. The reason for this is due to the actions of the leaders who govern the country. Furthermore, what leads one to view the U.S. as a non-democratic country is due to gerrymandering. The Illinois 4th, for example, is nicknamed ""the Latin Earmuffs,"" because it connects two predominantly Latino areas by a thin line that is effectively just one road. In so doing, it packs Democrats into a contorted district, ensuring that those voters cast ballots in a safely Democratic preserve. The net result is a weakening of the power of Latino votes and more Republican districts than the electoral math should reasonably yield. Because Democrats are packed together as tightly as possible in one district, Republicans have a chance to win surrounding districts even though they are vastly outnumbered geographically.” Generally speaking, democracy is supposed to be for the people and carried out by the people. But in fact, when one has politicians working for their own agenda, the people become powerless with help of gerrymandering.

In this day and age, the U.S is considered to be a representative democracy. For a representative democracy to work, people must have an equal input into the electoral process by which they choose their representatives. In this particular case, one might simply believe the people’s votes at the ballot box need to be accounted for equally. In addition, there should no individuals or groups that should be allowed to influence the outcome of elections for public office significantly more than any other individual or group. For example, another non-democratic practice would be the large corporations and wealthy interest groups that have begun campaigning for their preferred candidates through virtually unregulated political donation piggybanks, known as Super PACs. A super PAC is committee, which could possibly raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and individuals, but is not permitted to contribute to or coordinate directly with parties or candidates. Super PAC’s have had a great impact on the U.S government. Fred Wertheimer in his 2012 CNN article “Super PACS a disaster for democracy” stated, “ a type of independent political action.

In the 2012 presidential election, an even more insidious version of the super PAC was born -- the candidate-specific super PAC. Every significant presidential campaign.

Lastly, it was stated by Open Secrets that “As of December 07, 2018, 2,240 groups organized as super PACs have reported total receipts of $1,440,862,038 and total independent expenditures of $817,896,201 in the 2018 cycle.”

outcomes have strictly been unfair to the American people and strictly non-democratic. In the year 2016, Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton battled against each other to become president of the United States. During the battle for the presidential title, Clinton won the nationwide majority vote by 2.87 votes, but lost to Trump by 2.1% votes in the electoral college. ABC News stated, “According to vote tallies from the associated press, Clinton amassed 65,844,610 votes all across all 50 states, 48.2% percent of all voters... Trump received 62,979,636 votes, 46.1 percent of all votes cast.” Perhaps one may argue the election’s outcome was unfair, and the American people’s votes were shadowed by the electoral college. The idea that the U.S. is a democracy has been abolished by the inconsistencies throughout a true democracy.

That being said, Super PACs are a huge addition to why the U.S. is not from state elections to presidential elections, the U.S. electoral vote has had a super PAC -- created and run by close associates of the candidate -- that raises unlimited contributions to spend only to support that presidential candidate. Presidential candidate-specific super PACs are simply vehicles for the presidential candidates and their supporters to circumvent the limits on contributions to candidates enacted to prevent corruption. Most of the super PAC money has been spent on attack ads.” He continued, “President Barack Obama reversed course and agreed to send Cabinet members, White House staff and campaign officials to speak at and participate in fundraising events for Priorities USA Action, the allegedly ""independent"" super PAC supporting Obama's re-election. Days later, Mitt Romney's campaign announced that senior Romney campaign aides would do the same and appear and speak at fundraising events for Restore Our Future, Romney's allegedly ""independent"" super PAC.” American politics. One might consider rethinking the intentions of the founding fathers when making the country’s federal government. The founding fathers designed the U.S. Constitution to prevent the rampant expression of the people’s will. They were not in complete agreement while considering the new American union. The political dysfunction that is considered to be the product of recent cultural corruption has been with us from the very beginning. As a matter of fact, the document that was meant to prevent democracy in America has granted the American people a politics of minority rule, in which our leaders must necessarily pursue their unpopular aims through persuasion. One hundred and fifty years ago, our government was not in any position to hold the union together. Today, the different branches of government cannot agree on any course of action. The root cause of all this dysfunctional inactivity is our unusual form of democracy. While most democracies are governed by parliamentary systems, our Founders agreed for a presidential system, which got ambushed with multiple veto points to impede decisive legislative action. The men who drafted our governing document came to Philadelphia centuries ago to establish an effective national government, something that the Articles of Confederation had failed to do. However, they brought with them a fear, which ultimately kept them from achieving their goal.

For example, they feared a new class of leaders. The farmers and artisans were increasingly represented in the state and local governments, which caused concerns over the general business of lawmaking. And by trusting the election of the new Senate to state legislatures and the president to an electoral college, they grasped the power out of the American people’s hands.

Americans are angered by the failures of our political system and the failures of our governmental system. One may argue that the United States is a

Throughout our time as a country known as the United States of America, we the people as American citizens still do not fully have power. From the non-democratic practices to the outcomes that erupted from the inconsistencies of American politics, democracy, when in fact, the United States is simply not. the eligible population for someone who is going to better the country. As a country, we need people who will do everything in their power to see our nation thrive on greatness and equality for the American people.

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