The Importance of a Well Informed Populace
Thomas Jefferson once said. “If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” Even in Jefferson’s time ignorance was a problem, nowadays that ignorance has changed due to the internet, for the better or for the worst. Can America be truly a democracy if misinformed “facts” or simply wrong news is such a driving force? Although real news can spread faster than ever, so can false news. Ignorance has always been around it’s growing larger due to the media. Due to false news misinformation can quickly spread to the ignorant. Can America be truly a democracy if the misinformation rules?
A true democracy must be formed by well-informed citizens. The spirit of a democracy is meant to invoke the public to form their own government, where everyone has their say. When even the ignorant have a say is this country's politics, mistakes can be made. In America, the rules we have to follow as a democracy is the constitution’s amendments. The constitution is America’s backbone, it was written so that America had fundamental
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A form of news is propaganda not always completely false, but usually greatly exaggerated. Propaganda can easily turn on party or group on another. Propaganda has been around for many years , it spread through cartoons, movies, newspapers, and speeches. Propaganda was meant to alter the mindset of the audience towards the victim of the propaganda, it can even induce audience members to take action against the victim of the fake or exaggerated news. This fake news stands against what America is meant to be. America is supposed to be a place where people can have their opinion and live by it, as long as it doesn’t hurt people. To the uninformed false new or exaggerated news can be even more effective and possibly
Information is spoon fed to individuals. An illusion of choice is present; people can always choose the news station they watch, but which station, if any, has the most accurate information? Social media and television create opinions for people so they can sit back and accept the ludicrous concepts as their own. Post are composed of current political events such as gay marriage and police brutality, but the repetition is obvious; it’s evident that the opinions are derived from others without true original thoughts or consideration on the matter. Thoughts are crammed down the throats of the people, and the people willingly accept and adopt them.
Through the fundamental ideals of the founding fathers the United States government has been sculpted into a variation of a democracy influenced by Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton. These men each provided concepts and qualities of their respective government that are directly reflected in the constitution and the bill of rights. Although, conflicting principals can be identified through each individual’s interpretation of a democracy, there is no doubt Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton structured our government into what it is today. Madison described a democracy in which wealth needed to be equally distributed among the people in order to function.
In order for for a democracy to flourish, its citizens must remain knowledgeable. The people must have access to unbiased and accurate news, so they can participate in the democracy by
Anthony Terribile English 105 4/20/18 A democracy is a form of government where the people elect their leader In America we have a government that is famous for its checks and balances For any decision we make as a nation it must go through Layer and layer of bureaucracy . It is only fitting that to be elected our president the highest public office one can be in our great nation that they must also go through checks and balances. The checks and balance in this case is the electoral college. The electoral college is a group of people selected from each state to.
Constitution DBQ Around the time of the ratification of the American Constitution, there were some American citizens that wanted the government to have more power, and there were others that thought the people should be in control of the government. These two groups called themselves Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The Federalists wanted more government power, and the Anti-Federalists did not.
Three Reasons Thomas Jefferson Would Despise Democracy Today During the late 1700’s, a beautiful thing happened within the world. A country came about that began to dominate the world. The principles on which which this country rested were presented by a man of great intelligence. This man is none other than Thomas Jefferson, whom presented this country the foundation of principals for which is still stands today.
Problems in America only grew worse when democracy was being added to the mixture of already complicated politics. In Woody Holton’s book, Unruly American and the Origins of the Constitution, he stated that, “many Americans. . . were growing ‘tired of an excess of democracy,’ a ‘prevailing rage of excessive democracy. . .’ [or] ‘democratical tyranny.’” Democracy was an attempt at home rule among the colonies, but not everyone was happy with this extreme excess of colonial citizens contribution to the government.
Democracy in the United States of America means two completely different things depending on the race and level of authority of a person. Since the days of slavery when Frederick Douglass wrote “What to a Slave is the 4th of July?”. The 4th of July is nationally celebrated as Independence Day for the United States of America but when this holiday was created blacks were still enslaved therefore everyone in the nation was not free. Thus, came the holiday celebrated by African Americans, Juneteenth, which marked the abolition of slavery. The United States has the slogan “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, but this slogan has never been held true for all.
Even our founding fathers didn 't want a democracy, because they thought it would cause disarray and issues. The United States of America is not truly a democracy for those
Democracy is where people in a society can enjoy the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. While there were changes within America, they were not democratic. More people had political opportunities near the 1770s but America became less democratic because of the conflicts between different religious groups and the division of upper and lower classes in terms of social
“The true democracy, living growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people - faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but will also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgement - faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor, and ultimately recognize right”(Kennedy). As It is
Before media, politicians and other newsmakers had to rely on word of mouth to communicate the various messages they were espousing. However, they found this was an unreliable method of communication and the first newspapers and other media mediums were created. This comes at a drawback. As media companies grow larger and larger, they become more susceptible to bias. This has lead to a proliferation of bias across the many media companies in existence today.
“Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy,” said Benito Mussolini. By the time one enters the third grade they become aware of concept of democracy. Specifically in America, one is taught that they live in a democratic society. When asking what is democracy, the answer is never truly defiente. The answers given may be; a society where everyone votes, or by dictionary definition “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of the state; typically through elected representation.”
Throughout time, the concept of “democracy” has been misunderstood and misused by the majority of governments around the world. In the Ecuadorian case, despite suffering innumerable dictatorships in command of several presidents such as José Maria Velasco Ibarra or Guillermo Rodríguez Lara, democratic ideas have prevailed and continue to evolve through the history and through the time. In fact, nowadays democracy is the principal political system in this country, in which the notion of popular sovereignty can be recognized. However, it is not clear what kind of democracy the Republic of Ecuador has. So, in order to clarify what was said before, it will be taken into consideration: (1) the definition of democracy according to three important authors, (2) the principal characteristics of a democracy and the two main types of democracy: (3) direct and (4) representative.
The media has a crucial role during democratic elections when people appeal to the media to acquire information about candidates and make a decision. However, the presence of fake news threatens democracy; therefore, it is essential that people recognize the effects of fake news and combat them. Reasons behind fake news