Democracy in America

When talking about American Democracy, I feel as if I am speaking of our ideals and the Dream, rather than the actual political system in place. The American Dream, as we discussed last semester, takes many different forms. A true democracy, I believe, is only one of these forms.

In a true democracy, every vote cast is truly equal. Every person in the American society has an equal say about what is done with our money, who we decide to support, and etcetera. I am not entirely sure this would be practical, however.

There are several problems with this system. As DeAne mentioned, who is included in the American society? How does a government deal with someone who is uninformed? What about the issue of how much time it takes to get anything done? As someone stated (Jake, I believe) in class on Monday, the supposed democracy in America is less of a democracy, and more of a republic.

In the United States, every day citizens elect members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, who then take it upon themselves to be as informed as possible and represent those that elect. They are then asked to vote on many issues, hopefully keeping in mind the interests of those that support them. If the entire population of the United States were to be asked to vote as often as the Senate and Representatives, on the same scale as the elections of these officials, the government would be spending a lot more money on a simple decision.

When discussing this subject, Athenian democracy almost always comes up. If it worked for them, why can’t it work for us? I feel like it’s important to realize how much smaller their societies were in comparison to ours. California is a perfect example of what a large scale Athenian democracy could turn out like – it takes them ages to accomplish anything.

Whitman, himself an optimist, valued the spirit and enthusiasm in the American society and ultimately, the government. Not all people possess this enthusiasm for politics. I, myself, find politics a difficult subject. Though I do enjoy fiction with content matter concerning war and disagreements, the real thing is a much scarier concept. I don’t like to hear about death, or the Taliban, or who is stealing from whom. It worries me. If it were to fall to me to make such important decisions on a regular basis, I regret I would probably make very uninformed choices. I am aware of my own ignorance. Therefore, I feel the system we have in place works well for me. I do understand how many people find this system inefficient, though. I realize I am one of the few odd ones who would rather distance themselves from thinking about large problems.

I suppose Whitman would have thought me as exactly the sort of American that threatened his idea of democracy, but that’s okay by me.