The U.S. National government is a very interesting system. It is one of the longest lasting democracies in the world, although it isn't even really a democracy. It is a Republic. Our forefathers designed it so that it would have enough power to control, but not enough power to completely control at the same time. Each branch of the government can keep the other in check. The founding fathers were way ahead of their time when they came up with this system. It is amazing how complex things are in our government. What is more amazing is that anything ever gets done. Even just passing the smallest of things through congress and the senate takes an immense amount of work.
For a government that is supposed to be about the people, it seems to be far to complicated for the common citizen to understand. One would almost ask why would the system that is designed to protect the people of the nation, be a system that they may not be able to understand? Are we supposed to just sit back as we send the more educated to Washington D.C. to deal with the politics? Or could it be that because it is harder to understand for the average citizen is what makes us more interested? As humans we are naturally curious, if there is something we dont understand we want to understand it. Maybe this is what entices us to vote. We look to politicians to understand what is going on in our country. Which is why the President is such a figurehead. For example many usually tune in to a Presidents "Address to the Nation" on their news channels.
So it seems that Lincoln was right when he said that our governments is a "Government of the people, by the people, for the people." Our country can not function without us. If America were no longer run by its people, it would no longer be America. It is extremely important that its people take action and become involved in their country. In reality your vote for the President may not count specifically as a vote for your candidate, but it still counts for those in the electoral college. All in all some people may say voting in general is unimportant, but for our system to function, someone must vote.
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My Take On: Democratic Design
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I couldn't agree more with the statement that our founding fathers were incredibly ahead of their time when they created our system of governing. To me, one of the biggest reasons for our nation's success in having an effective government is the in-ability of no one branch being able to dominate totally. As I'm sure many of us have heard, power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely. Truer, more relevant words couldn't be used for the logic (hopefully) behind the functioning of our government. Also, I see your point with having a government that's supposed to be about the people but our current knowledge as a whole in America towards the government could be called minimal. Now, I believe that this reality of today is also not a mistake but a position of expected indifference of many of the American public. Although I believe that the nation's founders expected many to be in the know towards our government, it's my guess that they expected a good number not to be as well. I think that they knew once America grew up and out a smaller and smaller percentage of people would be in power through the government. Even though I do agree that many of us look towards politicians to understand what's going on in the government a lot more people are increasingly realizing that certain politicians and more importantly certain groups of like minded politicians are not concerned with letting Americans know the real deal on key issues. I tend to look at the whole system in a way of a chain of power from the policeman on a bike watching for speeders to the Governor of the State. The average joe in America has seen or come in physical proximity of a policeman, but how many in 100 could say the same about their congressman? This physical isolation is a necessary condition of their office, I'm sure but it leaves many Americans to wonder what's really going on in my country and how's this going to effect my family and I??? Without money or political contacts/clout there is a general sense of uselessness in trying to positively effect their lives through the system designed to help them.