US
US
In this section:
Undemocratic Republic The US finds itself in familiar territory By Roshan Panesar Of all the countries in the western world, none has had its leaders so continuously extol the benefits of freedom and democracy as the United States of America. At home and abroad, these themes have remained a mainstay of US political rhetoric since it became the world’s dominant power over 70 years ago. Ever since Harry Truman stood on the East Portico of the Capitol in January 1949, the theme of freedom has constituted some portion of every post-war inaugural address. This is to say nothing of the countless other speeches presidents have made behind the blue goose or resolute desk or before roaring crowds in Berlin. Yet, as those even mildly acquainted with US history will know, the country has a curious relationship with freedom and democracy within its own borders. The treatment of Native Americans, African
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Americans and women was dismal for most of her existence. Among the myriad of injustices these innocent people were dealt, they were all for many years denied the right to vote. The right to a fair vote, of course, being the fundamental bedrock of a free and democratic country. Yet, 148 years after the 15th Amendment was ratified and declared that no citizen should be denied their vote as a result of their ‘race, colour or previous condition of servitude’, and 53 years after Lyndon B Johnson (President, 1963-1969) signed the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting states casually ignoring the 15th Amendment, the United States is not a first-rank democracy. This is not just the author’s opinion. The Economist’s Intelligence Unit has classified the US as a ‘flawed democracy’ for the second year running, placing it behind the likes of ‘full’ democracies such as the United Kingdom and Germany and among the likes of India and Bulgaria.
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Undemocratic Republic
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The fight to be the 51st
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Building the Blue Wall
that the country is, overall, on an upward trend, it is clear that at the moment it is facing a democratic slump. Those democrats among us can hope that the blue wave in the midterms will help propel the US back in a positive direction before so much of the country spirals onto the alltoo familiar terrain of wildly undemocratic, unfree and unfair government. I shall not here, in the remainder of this piece, discuss the inadequacies of the US system of government which makes it wildly unrepresentative – that, for example, the Electoral College and Senate both give smaller, less populous states a relatively greater voice than larger, more populous states.
“Though optimistic US leaders like to say that the country is, overall, on an upward trend, it is clear that at the moment it is facing a democratic slump.”
Though optimistic US leaders like to say
The more pressing issue, and the issue that shows most starkly a country returning to its lessthan-democratic roots, are the ways in which the current crop of US politicians are subverting the American democratic process. The right in the judiciary and the legislature have been tampering with American systems of democracy for partisan gain since 2000.