Is Our Democracy a Deeply Flawed System?

Corey Daniels
The Paw Print

Do you believe in suppressing minorities? In a democracy you are supporting this very thing every time you vote. What you are supporting is a system of tyranny by the majority. If 51% of the people vote to violate your rights or take your property and you are on the 49% side, you lose.
There are 2 forms of democracy, direct and representative. Direct democracy is when people vote on a issue and the majority rules. Representative democracy is when people vote to elect a person to represent them in government.
In America we use both forms of democracy. You get to vote on some issues, you vote on who to elect and your representative votes for issues which do not get a direct vote.
My first paragraph showed the flaws of direct democracy. The flaws in the representative side of democracy are that 1.) if the person you voted for is not elected you do not even have representation in the government and 2.) how can 1 person represent thousands or even millions of people’s interests? How can they even know what all those interests are? The answer is they can’t.
In reality, democracy can easily be manipulated by those who seek to use of government for their own benefit. Because getting elected is a popularity contest, the candidate with the most media influence usually wins. In order to get a large media influence the politician must get money to buy advertisements to sway the largest number of voters. To get this money they rely on political donations. These donations usually come with strings attached. As the saying goes, “You dance with the people who bring you to the ball.”
The effects of the dependency of politicians on campaign donations create a system in which the politician, once in office, owes people favors.
Here is a summary of how it works. You, the politician, meet with potential campaign donors, in these backroom deals you let them know that you are on their side and you will make policies which favor them. Next, you run a political campaign in which you promise the voters that you are on their side and that you will make policies which will favor them.
But let me ask you this, who has the politician’s real loyalty? The people he met face to face and directly funded him or her? His political party? Or a faceless mob? If they break their promises to their political party or to direct financial supporters, they are facing direct consequences from powerful people. If they break a promise to the public, they know that most people will forget or are not paying attention. They can just influence the people through the media to believe that they are on the right side. To fix this problem we must understand the cause. The cause is the ability of politicians to use the government to spend other people’s money and to use its force to benefit their supporters. Take away this ability to give favors and you take away the motivation to buy the favors.
Another way to limit the problems of democracy is to protect people from government force. Government should not be allowed to impose itself by restricting people’s rights and by taking their money.
If you have a topic you have heard about that you would like to ask me about feel free to contact me. If you disagree with me also, feel free to contact me. You can send your questions/comments about politics or news to me at corey@newamericangovernment.org. When you send an email please let me know if I can use your question or comment in this column. You can read more articles written by me at  newamericangovernment.org.

blogs.adams.edu is powered by WordPress µ | Spam prevention powered by Akismet

css.php