America’s Democracy

America’s Democracy

To be able to remain a democracy, we as a nation need to have a government for the people and by the people. To properly ensure this happens we as as citizens need to vote and the politicians we elect need to ensure they provide checks and balances with each other as well as the other branches of government. Having a political system with proper checks and balances ensures the United States remains a democracy and has a system the citizens of this nation have faith and confidence in. Without checks and balances we become a corrupt nation with no vision or concern when it comes to leading “The People” and the U.S. Constitution fails. If the Constitution fails, everything we stand for as a nation no longer exists.

US Constitution

The Constitution is the law of the land in America. It’s empowered with the sovereign authority of the people by the framers and the consent of the legislature of the states. It also provides the government with its powers and provides limitations on the government that protects the citizens of the United States (The White House, 2017). Although the Constitution provides the laws on how the United States is run, there are still stregnths and weaknesses to this document.

One stregnth is that that is can be considered a living document as it can be amended and changed (Strauss, 2010). If there were not the ability to change the Constitution we would not have survived as a nation as we would have never been able to grow. Nothing is the same as it was in 1787 when the U.S. Constitution was signed. The Nation has grown, technology has changed, the way our nation is viewed has changed and our thought process has changed. Although, the Constitution can be amended it is not an easy process and most amendments were added due to the Civil War. Since then most amendments have only changed minor issues (Strauss, 2010).

A weakness of the Constitution is there are no term limits for congress. In the first one hundred years of our nation reelection rates were between 70 and 90 percent. However, nearly a quarter of the incumbents chose not to run for reelection. By the turn of the century retirement of incumbents was down 15 percent and has continued to decline each term since. Today only about 10% of incumbents lose elections (Frenzel, 1992).

For the Constitution to remain strong it has to change with time and adapt to current issues. We must be able to adapt when needed. As a superpower in the world because of our military, economy and because the Constitution gives us the right to make changes when needed. Other nations chose to rewrite their Constitutions over and over and that does not allow those nations to identify themselves in the world as to who they are and what they stand for.

If there were set term limits there would be a sense of urgency to accomplish something instead of waiting to see how they can be benefited vice the people being benefited. In recent years there has been a decline in voter participation. In 1990 only one-third of voters showed up. In 1988 for the Presidential election only half of the voters voted. Each of these were the lowest in 60 year (Frenzel, 1992). People are losing faith in politicians as a whole. Setting term limits should increase voter participation and with a little luck would improve how politicians are viewed by the public.

Federalism

Federalism is a system within the government which has the same territory covered by two levels of government. There is the overarching national government which is responsible for the federal governance which handle issues related to the nation. There is also the states and cities who govern local issues. However, both have the power to make laws and each have has a level of autonomy from each other (Legal Information Institute, 2017). Many examples of federalism can be seen in action by both the state and government levels to include national policy. One example would be after the attacks of September 11th, 2001 Congress enacted the Patriot Act whith the goal of enhancing investigative tools to prevent future terror attacks (Congressional Digest, 2015).

The Patriot Act has also made it easier for the U.S. Government to collect information on people suspected of terrorism or who may be a potential terror suspect. The collected information can be intelligence gathered can be both foreign and local information. The Patriot Act also expanded the authority to collect private information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and the National Security Letter (NSL) (Congressional Digest, 2015).

There are disadvantages as well. One disadvantage is the government can now freely use several types of communications to monitor people. This includes citizens, legal residents and anyone else in the nation. When not done by the law, the Patriot Act violates the Fourth Amendment. In 2003 the National Security Agency (NSA) installed a system at an AT&T office in San Freancisco to monitor comminucations (Ombress, 2015). The NSA has also been working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to access information through cyberspace. Because of the Patriot Act and the actions that the NSA has taken, many American citizens feel that their Fourth Amendment rights have been violated and will vontinue to be violated in the future.

With American’s feeling that the Patriot violates the Fourth Amendment and the First Amendment there needed to be updates to the Act as well as insurances that the government is only monitoring suspected terrorists. In 2015 the USA Freedom Act was passed which had several key elements to use checks and balances with the Patriot Act. One of the key Freedom Act initiatives is that it improves transparency and better information sharing with American Citizens (House Judiciary Committee, n.d.).

An option which may help improve the Patriot Act is for the govermnet to be proactive when it comes to improving the perception that the Government is violating the First and Fourth Amendment. The Patriot Act additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006 implemented options to enhance the civil liberties of citizens as well as permit challenges to the legality of records production orders issued by the FBI. These challenges also includes orders prohibiting the person receiving the production order from disclosing that the FBI is seeking information (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2013).

Branches of Government

There are three branches of government within the U.S. Government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Each play a vital role in how the government is run as well as providing checks and balances with the other respective branch. The legislative branch which consists of 7,383 seats and is supported by more than 30,000 staff. The legislative branch plays a vital role in the nation’s policy making (Michael, 2015).

One of the biggest strengths this branch has is oversight. These responsibilities consist of providing Congressional checks on Presidents power and balance against the Presidents discretion in implementing laws and making regulations. One of the major ways that Congress conducts oversight is though hearings. The House Committee on Oversight and government Reform and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs are both devoted to overseeing and reforming the operations, and each committee also conducts oversight in their respective policy areas (The White House, 2017).

One weakness of the Legislative branch is the amount of power it has. If the President is the same political party as Congress life for the President can be easy. If not, Congress has the power to make things difficult not just for the President but also what is best for the nation. One example is if the President proposes a federal budget he will need support in Congress or it will not get approved (Radu, 2010).

Checks and balances are vital for ensuring that we as a nation remain free and democratic. Without checks and balances politicians would be able to do what they want, when they want. To maintain the strength of the Legislative branch there should be continued reviews to ensure that separations and power and checks and balances are not being abused by politicians and are being used within the law. The founding fathers did not intend for the executive branch to be as large or powerful that it has become. If there were more support staff within the Legislative branch then it would be able to better understand executive power as well be better equipped to identify issues or potential issues within the Executive branch (Kosar, 2015).

One way to ensure that Congress does not put its own agenda ahead of the people is to have term limits as well as increased checks and balances. When people are in a position for too long they start to get comfortable and forget the big picture of why there were elected. Having term limits would keep fresh ideas in government. Increasing checks and balances on the legislative branch, it may end the Republican vs Democrat battle and work towards doing what is right for the country.

Political Parties, Interest Groups, or Elections

Since the United States became a country there has been a two political party system that has fought for the “hearts and minds” of its citizens. The names and ideological profiles of the two parties has changed throughout history, they both have provided a basis for