US People's Faith Lost?: Policies Ignore Citizen Preferences - Essay Sample

Introduction

Based on the concept that the American policies do not consider citizens' preference due to several issues, I suggest that the United States has lost faith in its people. If this were the case, the country would look totally different. For instance, the majority of Americans prefer marijuana being legalized, which is very different from what the public policy stipulates. The law would suggest a paid parental leave free education for public colleges (Mounk, 2018). Not only that, but also, the law would increase the minimum wage as per the preference of the people as well as eliminating gun control measures and legalizing abortion, especially for young people. Hence, the preference of the majority of Americans has a non-significant effect on public policy. Notably, the subversion of preferences of the majority of Americans in their purported democracy has been explored since the study by some political scientists, including Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens (Mounk, 2018). As a result of the study, different theories emerged that could answer significant question underpinning the American government, in which the question is framed into who rules the government and make the decision for the people.

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The first theory stipulates that ordinary people are decisive. The second theory proposed that a mass-based interest hold power and the third theory suggest that the business groups carry the day, while the fourth theory argues that public policy considers the decision of the economic elite (Pogrebinschi, 2013). The political scientists efficiently tested such theories by examining how the preference of the different groups would predict how the executive branch and Congress act on the policy issues in two decades (Mounk, 2018). Unfortunately, the outcomes were surprising because the narrow interest groups and the economic elites were dominant. The study found that people's policies were adopted approximately half time, as he mass-based interest groups had little influence in the public policy. On the people's view, there was absolutely no independent effect.

It is worth noting that for Gilens and Page, their studies encompassed a lot of exaggerations. Still, the work was a serious indicator of a creeping democratic system deficit regarding liberty. I can say to some extent that the unresponsiveness of the political system in the United States was by design and the idea that America was not founded as a democracy but as a republic. According to Alexander, the political system and the public policy in the United States do not include citizens in their collective capacity from any public share (Pogrebinschi, 2013). Understandably, in the 19th century, a group of entrepreneurial ideologists started addressing the concept of a self-conscious republic within the robed democratic system (Pogrebinschi, 2013).

Most of the writers have termed the idea of exclusion and political system in the United States as American oligarchy (Mounk, 2018). Additionally, the social hierarchies were being overturned through drastic mass immigration, civil war, western expansion, and rapid industrialization in the United States. Similarly, the concept of Egalitarian sentiments was increasing, and the fact that people should rule was gaining momentum (Trump, 2017). It was the realization that people should now be included in the government and most people started advocating for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

More significantly, the change in the justification for the American political system inspired fundamental reforms for democracy. Such reforms included the following: the Seventeenth constitutional amendment that required senators to be elected by the people through one man one vote, but not by the legislatures in 1913, then the amendment provided the women vote, and in 1965 the right to vote protected the Black American votes (Mounk, 2018). It can be true that such changes corroborate on a gradual movement towards democracy in the United States. Notably, the people of America took notice after realizing that the period when most Americans were perpetually growing wealthy had come to an end. The individuals who were asked about their economic status could only compare their status to those of their parents. More precisely, by 1940, the youth, especially at the age of 30s, could earn more than what their parents could earn at the same age (Graham, & Svolik, 2019).

I can assert that the people in the United States have never shown any love for their country or even think of the capital city of Washington as a source of moral virtue. The truth is that the people could only love the country if the system could focus on their favor, especially if the people were wealthier than their parents and the subsequent generation could be better off than them, then that is how citizens could give more trust to their politicians (Mounk, 2018). Again the increase of the digital media due to advance technology that is currently driving the economy of the world has given ordinary citizens a natural sensation for democracy. It is true that currently, Americans have started to recognize the significant benefit when their votes make fundamental challenges in their lives and in economic performance. Therefore, with the advance technology and the media, the American government has often been unresponsive, outmoded, and sluggish in its action.

More imperatively, the people of America are currently feeling more alienated from their political institutions than initially. When they scrutinize the decisions made by their politicians for their country, they see the belief that their preferences are excluded in the public policy; the citizens are disenchanted with the American democracy (Van Elteren, 2013). Fortunately, President Donald Trump has intuited such a discounted and vowing the Americans a remedy. When I reflect on his campaigns, the president promised that he would make sure that the voice of the ordinary citizens is positioned to avert both the unresponsive and corrupt cartels who work tirelessly for their personal interest at the expense of the people. In a move that most Americans believed would demonstrate real democracy to the people, Trump told the public that he would remain their voices and fight for their rights (Trump, 2017). During his inauguration, the president told off the crowd that he was not transferring power from one party or administration to another, but from Washington and giving it to the ordinary citizen in every part of the United States (Mounk, 2018).

I can confidently say that President Donald Trump won the election because of several reasons such as anxiety of immigration, the increased rift between people in the rural and those in the urban as well as the perceived notion of racial animosity. But it is also true that the deep sensation of powerlessness among the voters also played a fundamental factor in determining who the president of the United States becomes. Assertively, the majority of people who voted for Trump were not influenced by what the government does to its people, and that most politicians always serve the interest of the powerful and the rich individuals (De Toqueville, 2019). But truly from the actions and the behavior, Trump has no actual intention of giving power to the people, and possibly the government will perpetually lose the citizens' trust if good measures are not taken by the current and the future leaders of the country.

Precisely, Trump has shown a replica of what happened previously, as the tax bill has only benefited the donor class and the corporations. Sadly, after approximately one year when the people had rejected the political elites and elected a self-proclaimed general of the people, the government has been manipulated by the billionaires and the lobbyists than its olden days of democracy, that is, I can still project that the people's trust will never be gained any time soon (Mounk, 2018). In the 20th century, lobbying lost the nastiness of the illicit, and even the corporations became unenthusiastic to exercise their dominance in the public policy decision (De Toqueville, 2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the United States has experienced problems regarding democracy. I suggest straightforwardness and boldness in accounting for the methodologies and approaches in which power has been denied to the people but left on the hands of a few individuals whose interest are their priorities if truly there is a need to identify and address the root cause of populism in America. It is worth for the people of the United States to properly think of how power can be given back to the citizen and that the interest of the rich is traded off for the benefit of democracy. I recommend that for the government to gain the trust of its people, democracy should prevail to curb the power of the self-centered individuals and to protect Americans at all costs.

References

De Toqueville, A. (2019). Democracy in America. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing.

Graham, M., & Svolik, M. (2019). Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States. Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States (March 18, 2019).

Mounk, Y. (2018). America is not a democracy. The Atlantic.Pogrebinschi, T. (2013). The pragmatic turn of democracy in Latin America. In APSA 2013 Annual Meeting Paper.

Trump, D. J. (2017). National security strategy of the United States of America. Executive Office of The President Washington DC Washington United States.

Van Elteren, M. (2013). Celebrity Culture, Performative Politics, and the Spectacle of" Democracy" in America. The Journal of American Culture, 36(4), 263.