How Did American Politics Become Democratic In The 1800s

Students have often debated whether American politics were becoming more democratic in the early 1800s. American politics in the early 1800s had aspects in which they were becoming more democratic, and aspects in which they were becoming less democratic, when taking into consideration voting, campaigning, and political parties. Politics that are democratic are representative of everyone in America, and everyone is able to participate in government practices. Politics that are not democratic are the opposite and do not represent everyone, or do not allow everyone in America to participate in government practices. Although there were ways that involvement in American politics was increasing in the early 1800s, they failed to become fully democratic

This is important to note because it holds back on progress, such as discussing the importance of everyone voting. David Crockett, in Narrative of the Life of David Crockett explains that he was not sure what to talk about to the crowd so it was important to make them laugh by his stories. David Crockett states, "I knowed my competitor could open government matters to them as easy as he pleased. He had however, mighty few left to hear him, as I continued with the crowd… telling good humoured stories, til he was done speaking." Crockett, a man who is uneducated, recognizes that he cannot speak about important political issues, and therefore just tells funny stories. Not only does he do so in a way that distracts the crowd from listening to important government matters, but also from listening to another point of view other than his own. Campaigning was therefore less democratic because it was focused less on important issues, such as those that would improve democracy, and instead focused on persuading people to vote for one based on their personal experience with

Today, American politics are still not fully democratic. Although women, African Americans, and Native Americans are now able to vote, a lot of groups are still underrepresented. This can be seen in the continuing two party system, which overlooks third parties. For example, in the 2016 election, for those who did not vote for either candidate of the democratic or republican party, their votes were underrepresented because the third party candidate did not have enough votes. If not that, then some people felt the need to vote for one of the major parties' candidates because they felt their vote would not count otherwise, which then caused the votes to be skewed. Because of this, American politics were not fully democratic in the early 1800s, nor are they fully democratic