Democracy’s Pretty Cool. Good Job, America!

The creation of America’s representative democracy was designed to be a perfect system that secured the rights of the people. It was a system created to protect the three benchmarks of democracy: popular sovereignty, political equality, and political liberty. Although the underlying structure seems to do so, our democracy has seen faults in all sections of these benchmarks. Particularly, we have seen faults in political equality with years of majority tyranny. Where the majority opinion, with the democratic majority rules pillar, can undermine any minority opinion, hindering political equality. This can be seen with slavery and Jim Crow laws, disallowing African-Americans equal political power, as well as during the Cold War, where McCarthyism led to unjust discrimination against anyone remotely supporting a communist approach to society. However, in today’s America, although not without its inconsistencies and faults, majority tyranny is protected against by the political divide we see today.

People seem to panic when anybody discusses how divided the country is today. We see two powerful viewpoints, conservatives and liberals, constantly battle it out in Congress and in the media. This presents the image that we are falling apart as a nation. However, this continuous arguing and prevention for one side to dominate is our democracy working. Majority tyranny is nearly impossible with today’s political spectrum. Yes, Trump has used his power to succeed in questionable actions, but there have been many times where democrats have been able to stop or slow this power. Furthermore, his actions have not been able to drastically shift our way of government. Our country is not close to spiraling progressively backwards. This is because of the divide. Strong political equality on both sides. Some people may be screaming “majority tyranny,” but when it’s half the country screaming it, it doesn’t exist. Although republicans control the majority of our government, they do not have majority tyranny and have enough contention to hold our democracy strong.

If we look at how the government has had control in the past and how misrepresented the minority was, we can have clear perspective on what we have today. Of course, it is imperfect and there are plenty of cases where minority opinions do not hold strong. However, when we look at the power of the two sides in our nation, we will see that majority tyranny does not exist.

Sophia Harrison says:

January 28, 2018 at 6:36 pm

Calum,
I think there have been two specific movements following the 2016 Presidential election that has proved that our nation is capable of either spiraling progressively backwards or progressively forwards. The first movement would be the more recent rise of the KKK in the United States. As of June 2017, there were 42 different Klan groups that were active in 22 different states. The most recent notable movement by the KKK was in Charlottesville, VA, when the Klan reacted to the cities removal of statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It is no secret that President Trump has had a history of being racist. His political rise was built of the foundation of his lie that former President Barack Obama was from Kenya. He built an entire campaign around building a wall to make sure no Mexicans were allowed into the country. Without Trump’s outward racism, I don’t know if the KKK would have gotten the confidence they needed to rise again. However, it is not all bad. Another movement I believe that stemmed from the 2016 Presidential election is the #METOO movement. If enough victims of sexual assault came forward and posted #METOO, then maybe the nation could realize the magnitude of the problem. Like his racist tendencies, it is also no secret that Trump can be extremely misogynistic. He highly focuses on women appearances, including his own daughter’s, and makes extremely sexist remarks. Although it may see that this movement solely stemmed from the Harvey Weinstein allegations, I think there was a lot of build up leading up to that that made women angry and ready to be vocal, which I believe stemmed from Trump’s presidential win.

Austin Marsilia says:

January 28, 2018 at 10:30 pm

Calum,

You have made several great points in your argument that outline the feelings of many Americans today. There is no question that this country is still divided, arguably due to the deep rooted two-party system within our democracy. You brought up an interesting point by stating, “majority tyranny is protected against by the political divide we see today”. This is an argument I have not heard when discussing the topic of majority tyranny in the United States. By making the previous statement, you are suggesting that the deep political divide, a flaw in our democratic system, is actually making it impossible for majority tyranny to exist. According to your argument, this is due to the inability to silence a minority voice in modern America.
Furthermore, to accredit the racial, economic, and social divisions in this country to Trump’s presidency is a grotesquely incorrect statement, one that you debunk in your post. Subsequently, you denote the fact that Trump alone cannot change the course of the American government, but instead requires the approval of Congress, a body of officials elected by the people. Although the President of the United States can set new political precedents, he or she still needs to operate within the bounds of the Constitution, which are enforced by Congress and the Supreme Court. Overall, I feel as though you did an excellent job harping on the issues of the American democratic system, offering your own insight as to why majority tyranny can no longer prevail in American government, and closing with common political misconceptions regarding the our government. However, I would have liked to see more previous examples of majority tyranny and current examples of how the two-party system has prevented majority tyranny from manifesting in modern American politics.