The Deep Democracy In America Summary

“The nature of tyrannies, dictatorships, and oligarchies is to use powers of suppression to deny citizens political and human rights. The nature of democracy is to find ways to guarantee those rights.” (Jacobus, pg. 51) By definition, democracy is, “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” (en.oxforddictionaries.com) The basic elements of democracy are (but not limited to) free and fair elections, protection of human rights, limited government power, and equality before the law. Robert A. Dahl believed the ideal of a perfect democracy is unrealistic. However, Dahl believed a democratic government is the best option despite its imperfections. Dahl lists

It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for

Ten states put voter identification restriction laws into place, restrictions targeting the minority, the poor and the elderly vote. To be quite honest, it’s clear that these voter restrictions are control tactics implemented predominantly by republicans, continuing to be an issue in the most recent election. Although in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Texas court rulings blocked certain new restrictions, fourteen states remain on the list of states with restrictions, including Wisconsin, Kansas and Texas. "We cannot ignore the recent evidence that, because of race, the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history,” Judge Diana Motz wrote. In order for votes to be counted equally, all citizens must be allowed the opportunity to even be eligible.

A full understanding of the political choices offered:

There is an intrinsic divide in American democracy, with the educated politicals on one side and the less educated politicals on the other side. It shows the deep estrangement that wounds both ways. The less educated fear they are being governed by a bunch of intellectual snobs that know nothing of their lives and experiences. The educated fear their fate hangs in the hands of a bunch of obtuse, know-nothings who have an unimpressive and illiterate