Grinding to a Halt :: American Government Politics Elections Essays

Grinding to a Halt Whats the U.S. all about? When asked that question almost every 1 I know would reply Well, the U.S. represents democracy, capitalism, freedom, etc. The first liaison I noticed is that everyone seems to mention democracy first. If you quiz a random American on this, thats probably what theyll think of too. Its also a point of popular opinion that might be the source of resentment for many Americans who are unhappy with our government right now. Why would that be? Because the U.S. is actually not a sheer democracy, as Im sure you already knew, but a republic. This means the government is set up in such a way that the people as a whole elect their leaders, those who they think would best represent them, and then those leaders handle the big issues, such as foreign policy, legislation, or effectual interpretation. In principle this is a good system, since it would be virtually impossible for everyone in the U.S. to vote on every issue facing our nation. With this vision our forefathers created a strong governmental system, one they hoped would withstand the tests of time. And it has. Until now. Many Americans feel the modern American government is bloated, deceptive and overly convoluted beast that isnt living up to its founding principles. This has become quite apparent in the 2000 Presidential election in which a process that should last little more than a day, the determine of ballots, has lasted more than two weeks. The foremost problem that this election demonstrates very clearly is a lack of any real political direction. Neither candidate, or fellowship for that matter, can presently demonstrate substantial division on major subjects. While the parties generally tend one way or the other on issues, there are no longer strong and fast party-wide philosophies that one can count on. When our Government was first created there were major divisions between the parties of the time. eventide up until around WWII both parties had strong separate characters that helped voters in choosing the right person to represent them. Over the last fifty years, however, the parties have started to grow together, incomplete side feeling safe as the representation of a political or philosophical extreme. Now this move towards mediocrity has finally culminated in one of the closest races for the presidency in U.