Is America A Democracy?
Interest groups are a necessity in our republic. That’s right. I said republic. The United States of America is not now, nor has it ever been a “democracy”.
“…upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it." The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.
Much confusion has been made over the statement that we are a democracy. To make this clear, America has never been a democracy. Special interest groups would argue that this is just not true. One of the leading professors in the country on the subject of democracy, Professor Martin …show more content…
They often have the ability to influence government officials either by suggestion or threat of removal from public office in the next election. There are times that special interest groups also use exclusion in favor of wealthy elites to change an election outcome. This was made obvious in the 2008 election of Barack Obama. George Soros, a million dollar campaign donor, used exclusion to rally the rich and those who sucked up to them to raise the $1 billion plus that Mr. Obama used to ultimately win the presidency. The election of Mr. Obama and the campaign he ran against Mitt Romney in 2012 brought up many questions. Do candidates really need to spend that much money to become a president? Can only a rich man or woman now become president? Should American’s pay for these elections instead of private donors? And my favorite…Should the candidate who wants to be president pay for their campaign out of their own
“…upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it." The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.
Much confusion has been made over the statement that we are a democracy. To make this clear, America has never been a democracy. Special interest groups would argue that this is just not true. One of the leading professors in the country on the subject of democracy, Professor Martin …show more content…
They often have the ability to influence government officials either by suggestion or threat of removal from public office in the next election. There are times that special interest groups also use exclusion in favor of wealthy elites to change an election outcome. This was made obvious in the 2008 election of Barack Obama. George Soros, a million dollar campaign donor, used exclusion to rally the rich and those who sucked up to them to raise the $1 billion plus that Mr. Obama used to ultimately win the presidency. The election of Mr. Obama and the campaign he ran against Mitt Romney in 2012 brought up many questions. Do candidates really need to spend that much money to become a president? Can only a rich man or woman now become president? Should American’s pay for these elections instead of private donors? And my favorite…Should the candidate who wants to be president pay for their campaign out of their own