U.S. Government

Nicholas Morrow

3 May 2018

ENG 112 College Composition II

United States Current Government

The United States’ Current Form of Government

Many seem to think that the United States is a democracy. It is often referred to as such and ever since the beginning of this country, that is what it has been classified as. Maybe that was the intention or maybe the founding fathers were not anticipating the type of reform that the country they founded would go through. Maybe they wanted it to be a democracy. Perhaps that was the initial intention. However, the country is far from a democracy. Yes, there is a national vote to determine the leader of the nation, but between individual state governments, voter fraud, and the electoral college, the country is more of a Federal Republic than a Democracy.

The truth about the United States is that it is lots of different governments, all put into one. This is simply because it is not just one country with one government, but it is one country made up of 50 different states with 50 different governments. Each state has its own laws and regulations that do not always align with other states or even the country. A country that has one government and then subdivisions under that government is called a Federal Republic. As defined by Penny Pollart, Ph.D.: “A constitutional government in which the powers of the central government are limited by law to create individual (states or providences) with certain degrees of self-governing powers” (Pollart 1). This means that there is a federal government, but that it is limited in power due to the individual states and their governments. This means that the people do not have a direct say in the federal government. The citizens of America do indeed have the right to vote, but that right is limited to only voting for representatives. Everyone can vote for local and federal government officials, but do not get to vote on things such as laws, amendments, policies, foreign affairs, etc. In a true democracy, the people have the power to vote directly to the main government, on matters such as these. Here in the United States, voters can only vote in officials, who then make the decisions that the people cannot vote for directly.

Moreover, more proof that the U.S. is not a true democracy is because of the scandal of voter fraud. In the latest presidential election, there was lots of talk of interference with the election. Recently, CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was accused of interfering with the election (Newton). In a true democracy, there would be no government interference with the election. Each voter would have a fair choice at voting for whatever he/she believes in. If either campaign interferes with the election, then the whole idea of democracy flies out the window. The voter interference and fraudulent activity deems the U.S. incapable of being a true democracy.

Another way that the United States cannot classify as a democracy is due to the electoral college. The electoral college is the system that the U.S. uses in order to represent the votes by organizing them by different areas. For example, in the presidential election, this is how it is divided. In each state, one must go to the voting poll and vote. That vote goes toward that city or area. Then that city becomes either blue (democratic) or red (republican) depending on the majority number of votes. Whatever color the city becomes, that will go toward the total for the state. Then the same thing happens for the state. Whichever political party holds the majority number of cities, wins the electoral vote for that state. Then, that state will have a certain number of electoral votes (depending on the population of said state) and will go toward either the republican or democratic candidate. This means that each individual vote does not directly affect the result of the election. This has been proved by the difference in the majority vote versus the electoral college vote. In the 2016 presidential election, President Donald Trump won the election. He won this election by winning the electoral college; however, Senator Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. This is because President Trump won more states and many of which with a large number of electoral votes such as Texas (38), Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15) (270towin.com). Even though Senator Clinton won states with large numbers of electoral votes (California [55], New York [29]), she did not win nearly as many of the large or middle range electoral states (270towin.com). Though Clinton was defeated in the electoral college 304 (Trump) to 227 (Clinton), she won the popular vote of the nation 62,984,828 (Trump) to 65,853,514 (Clinton) in what has been referred to as the “most stunning upset in American history” (Goldmacher and Schreckinger). This was not the first time this has happened. In the election of 2000, Bush defeated Gore by the electoral college even though he received less total votes than Gore (270towin.com). This proves that even though citizens get to vote, their vote is does not directly affect the result of an election due to the electoral college.

The United States was founded on democracy; however, times are changing. The country is evolving. A voting poll is much different today than it was 229 years ago. At one point, each voter was represented equally, but now all of that has changed. The country has shifted into becoming a Federal Republic where voters are not represented as much as they would be in a democracy. Because of state governments, voter fraud, and the electoral college, the United States of America cannot possibly be a democracy.

Works Cited

Goldmacher, Shane & Schreckinger, Ben. “Trump Pulls Off Biggest Upset in U.S. History.” Politico, 09 November 2016, https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/election-results-2016-clinton-trump-231070, Accessed 03 May 2018.

Newton, Casey. “Facebook will release more data about election interference, but only after the election.” The Verge. Vox Media Inc. 04 April 2018, https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/4/17200048/facebook-election-report-mark-zuckerberg-scorecard-fake-news, Accessed 03 May 2018.

Pollart, Penny, Ph.D. “Social Studies Terms- Government.” https://www.depts.ttu.edu/education/student-resources/undergraduate/documents/social_studies_key_terms_for_texes_exam.pdf , Accessed 03 May 2018.

“2016 Presidential Election Results.”270 to Win, https://www.270towin.com/maps/2016-actual-electoral-map, Accessed 03 May 2018.