Raymond Pietzak
Like any smart individual who needs to write about democracy, their first step is google. After doing that I found an article that struck my eye when I saw the title “Donald Trump is a Unique Threat to American Democracy” so I clicked and ended up reading the whole thing. In a democracy the people of that nation vote on the bills that are soon to become laws, and decide to pass or veto them. This made me realize that we don’t even have a democracy in our country we have more of a republic then anything. This basically means we as a people vote on other, more qualified people to elect, and pass the laws that we have today. I found a video explaining how our founding fathers intended on how our country should be ran, and they felt that a true democracy was not the best option. This then brings me back to the article that I found that said Donald Trump was a treat to our democracy. This statement, first, is false because America was never a democracy in the first place it was a intended to be a republic from the beginning. Although Mr. Trump is very unique like they said, the article never really talks about how he is going to impact the American society. I may not agree with the views of Donald Trump, and the fact that he has not made a clear stance in some of the controversial topics, makes many hesitant on how he could execute in office. With this entire election I feel as if the candidates are just trying to make the other look worse so that they seem like the best candidate for the job to lead our countries. This in my opinion is what would be the worst thing to threaten our government. Our candidates should be trying to prove their stance in a way to get the American people on their side instead of saying that the other person’s ideas are not what is best for our country with no evidence of such. Since this article was targeting Trump and how his ways to try and get the American people on his side isn’t working because he realized that his initial belief wasn’t in the best interest of the country. Although we are not a democracy we are still the ones deciding on who we elect as our next president and we should have candidates that put their best foot forward instead of pulling their opposing candidate behind them.
“Donald Trump is a Unique Threat to American Democracy”
“Is America Really a Democracy?”
Raymond –
Glad to see that you are thinking about the upcoming election! You seem to be combining two separate issues in this post. First, like Peter did in his blog post last week, you have included a video that clarifies that America is not a “pure democracy,” but rather a “representational democracy.” I’m not certain just how important that distinction is – particularly since there are no large countries that function as “pure democracies,” and I think we all understand that in the U.S., we are voting for those who will represent us. I’m not sure, however, that this “are we a democracy?” question is so relevant to the Washington Post editorial you link to. It’s an editorial – which means it’s an opinion piece, expressing the opinion of the editors of the paper who, in this case, see Trump’s candidacy as potentially dangerous for the country. I wish your post had discussed the editorial. You seem to respond to it very generally, but don’t discuss any of the specifics mentioned in the piece. This editorial isn’t about one candidate tearing another down; it was written by voters responding to the ideas laid out at the Republican convention, so I’m not sure why you seem to have an objection to the very premise of the editorial.