Grinding to a Halt :: American Government Politics Elections Essays

Grinding to a Halt Whats the U.S. all about? When asked that question about both iodine I know would reply Well, the U.S. represents democracy, capitalism, freedom, etc. The first thing 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 descry that might be the source of resentment for many Americans who are depressing with our government right now. Why would that be? Because the U.S. is actually not a pure democracy, as Im sure you already knew, but a republic. This heart and soul the government is set up in such a path that the people as a whole elect their leaders, those who they think would shell represent them, and then those leaders handle the big issues, such as foreign policy, legislation, or legal interpretation. In principle this is a reasoned system, since it would be virtually impossible for everyone in the U.S. to vote on every issue facing our nati on. 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, delusory and overly convoluted beast that isnt living up to its founding principles. This has bring about quite apparent in the 2000 Presidential election in which a process that should last little more than a day, the counting 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 caller for that matter, can presently demonstrate substantial division on study subjects. While the parties generally tend one way or the some other on issues, there are no longer strong and disruptive party-wide philosophies that one can count on. When our Government was first created there were study divisions between the parties of the time. Even up until around W WII both parties had strong scatter 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, neither side feeling safe as the representation of a political or philosophical extreme. Now this incite towards mediocrity has finally culminated in one of the closest races for the presidency in U.