Presidential Matters

On January 6, 2021, significant historic and disturbing events happened at the US Capitol. This provoked me to reflect on the value of democracy, and how we as a country can be more democratic.

Beginning with our democracy here at GPS. I was elected student council president through speeches, posters, and a direct democratic process in which all students decide who gets to be president without needing approval from an electoral college. Because of this, I think ours is a truer democracy than the one we have as a country. Our nation's electoral college can override the popular vote, meaning the winner of the presidency is not the one who gets the most votes from ordinary citizens, but the one who gets the most electoral college votes. This happened in the presidential election of 2016 where the winner lost the popular vote by about 3 million votes!

This is because the US is not a democracy but a republic. This means that the demos, or the majority of the people, vote for representatives to make choices for them rather than the people voting for themselves. This wasn’t the case in ancient Athens, where citizens directly voted for things. Athens had a direct democracy. If the US was like this, then we could truly call it a democracy.

Either way, representative or direct, democracy stands for peace. Once you become violent, you stop being democratic. For example, in democracies, you use dialogue and debate to work out your differences, not violence. Then after the sides have been heard, there’s a vote, and then we respect the results of the vote, whether our side wins or loses. The people that attacked the capital to overturn the results of the election aren’t democratic. We here in the US have a peaceful transition of power. Imagine that once I was elected president by the students and a few of those students who didn’t vote for me rushed to Mr. Metzger’s office with sporks, tearing down doors, and demanding that Mr. Metzger ignore the votes of the students and elect the candidate that they wanted. Even if the opposer didn’t win enough votes. If that happened, these students wouldn’t be acting democratically, just like those who attacked the Capitol and US democracy.

So, let’s keep the peace. That’s how we can become more democratic.