America's Ideal Democracy
... gives the opposite view, saying that the electorate is not easily manipulated. Given all the public opinion polls politicians think they can manipulate the voter, but the American voter makes rational decisions about the biased things we see and read. There are also certain issues that really move the electorate, including concerns of public policy, governmental performance, and executive personality. More than 105,000,000 people turned out to vote in the 2000 election. The Republicans wanted Bush because he was safe, stupid, and willing to serve as a front man for their reactionary agenda. There was no mandate from the voters though because the election was so close and the Supreme Court ended up with the final ruling in the election. In a democracy the purpose of an election is to indicate which party won and which one lost, and therefore which policies the people want. Key says that in 1928 elections were doing their job. 1928 was a critical election, one that has change, realignment, a class element, and lasts. The election was aligned by class, the voters spoke in the election, and there was clear message. Since the election of 1928 there has been no more critical elections because there have not been exciting candidates or issues. This could mean that the current alignment of groups is good. The election of 1996 was not a critical election but it was a realignment because everyone went Republican. These two elections did fit the ideal because the voters were sending a clear message about the policies they wanted. Key says that today elections are not ideal because we have not had a critical election since 1928, but that does not matter because the election process is still working. Ginsberg disagrees in his article, saying that elections do not give a clear indication of who won and lost, and therefore there is institutional warfare. Ginsberg says that the ideal election is one that answers the question of who should run the government, but ours no longer do that. Americans have moved the power struggle to different areas since they can no longer fight through elections. There is now fighting through institutional means: congressional investigations, media revelations, judicial proceedings, and alliances with foreign governments. The party out of power uses the media to try to limit the power of the party in power by exposing corruption and scandal. Parties will go through the FBI to investigate people who do not support the president's policies. The problem with all of these methods is that the political parties and the people are spending so much time on institutional warfare that it is impossible to get anything done. Ginsberg says that not only are we far from the ideal democracy, but we are actually experiencing the demise of democracy. Decisions are no longer happening at the ballot box because there are no more critical elections. The people are not speaking and having their views heard, but inst...