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Voter Turnout In Presidential Elections

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For the past century, voter turnout in American presidential elections has significantly declined, likely due to the fact that Americans do not believe their single votes are important. In light of more recent elections, political donations from corporations, identified or anonymous, have infringed upon traditional, American democracy. Although corporate donations to political campaigns have little effect on the public compared to the newly pivotal role of social media, these donations are founded upon a ruling that is classist, undemocratic, and corrupt, leading to unprincipled politics. This ruling is Citizens United, passed January 21, 2010. Fundamentally, the Supreme Court ruled that “corporations, unions, and other groups may engage in unlimited political spending …show more content…

Unfortunately, through the freedom granted to corporations/the wealthy through Citizens United, this spending will “distort our democracy, tilting the playing field to favor corporate interests, discouraging new candidates, chilling elected officials and shifting the overall policymaking debate…in the direction of giant corporate interests,” (Sanders and Weissman). This is one of the many reasons American citizens feel a general distrust toward “Washington” and “Wall Street.” The people in power will remain in power with no new opportunities for anyone else. Congress and the States should retain the highest powers, certainly not highly profitable corporations. Citizens United “is about dominance…by wealthy people and corporations and about legitimizing a…system that is unrepresentative, money-driven, corrupt, outmoded, and dysfunctional,” (Kairys). The wealthy are given more speech rights, leading to more representation and inequality when America is truly about democracy and equality for all. If Citizens United and its components remain lawful, America will continue to digress from a democratic

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FEC determined that there would no longer be limitations on independent expenditures by corporations, so the Court of Appeals ruled that since corporations are able to spend freely and independently, the government “can have no legitimate anti-corruption interest in limiting contributions made for the purpose of funding such expenditures” (Chalmers, 60). Therefore, the contribution limits placed on organizations and political committees were ruled unconstitutional. iii. Effects The Citizen’s United case had quite an influence on the court’s ruling, as they wrote that the “arguments before Citizens United, …plainly have no merit after Citizens United….Contributions to groups that make only independent expenditures cannot corrupt or create the appearance of corruption” (Murse).

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FEC,” he addresses the idea that Citizens United has many developed aspects to it; the case is arguing that Citizens United “does not involve cartel or monopoly practices, or abuse of children, or any of the other traditional exceptions to First Amendment protection.” However, Epstein also addresses that corporations are not citizens and cannot vote. But many people still ask: if corporations are not citizens and cannot vote, why are they protected under the First Amendment? This protection under the First Amendment gives corporations and unions rights that states do not have the power to overrule; businesses, essentially, have more power and more sway in their opinions. Epstein is very objective when presenting the issues of this case; however, he considers this power political corruption because the First Amendment does not protect the use of money, which means that “anyone who uses money to obtain assistance in preparing for political speech has crossed over the line into potentially criminal conduct.”

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My Argument: Thesis: The Ballot Initiative Process is titled in favor of the rich and well connected--this is a perversion of it’s original intent to empower citizens. It’s time for a change in the status quo. Because the cost of signature gathering is so high, Citizen groups cannot qualify an initiative for the ballot without big-money backing. This effectively makes big money the gatekeepers to the initiative process--they decide who gets to play and who doesn’t.

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When the Democratic System in America was founded in 1787, it was built on the sturdy ideals of equality and fairness. The founding fathers of the constitutional convention developed the Electoral college system with the best interests of the American people in mind, as the average person was highly under-educated and they did not trust them to make a decision as important as the But over time as society and even our democracy has changed, it has become ridden with flaws and corruption especially in the electoral college and voting system. The effects of the Electoral College’s inefficiencies oppose the very ideas our democracy was built off of. Because of the over-representation of small states, the broken promises of political equality, and

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United States brought the issue of placing limits on campaign spending before the Supreme Court for the first time (Jamie, 2014). In its ruling, the Supreme Court stated that Congress did not have the authority to regulate primary elections or political parties and thus, limitations on campaign spending were struck down. Despite the Newberry v. United States ruling, Congress amended the FCPA in 1925 to again include spending limits in federal elections as well as a ban on corporate contributions to federal elections. In 1941, United States v. Classic resulted in the Supreme Court upholding spending limits in federal elections. The Court stated that the constitutional right to vote did extend to primaries (Jamie, 2014).

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Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10 that democracies “have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” This belief led the Constitutional Convention to drastically limit popular participation in government action. Even the president is not voted in by popular vote, and is rather selected by electorates, who were themselves originally selected by state legislatures. So essentially, the public would vote for the legislator, who would vote for the electorate, who would finally vote for the president. The justices of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, are selected by the president and confirmed by congress rather than voted on.

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One important component in which the upper class rule America is the electoral process. Loose campaign finance regulation, including controversial Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United v. US and Buckley v. Valeo is a primary cause of the wealthy ruling politics. These two decisions asserted that corporations are not limited in their spending on political candidates. Essentially, the US Supreme Court enabled corporate leaders to buy influence - SuperPAC heads and wealthy businessmen were welcomed to join forces and pour as much money as possible into candidates’ campaigns. The net effect: America’s wealthiest individuals could exert an unmatchable influence on candidates and the electorate while pressing an agenda favoring the upper class.

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Currently, we have both a wealthy class and common people rule. Everyone (common people) gets to vote, and those votes decide our future. But, because of their wealthy, the wealthy have an advantage when it comes to politics. They can pay a lot for the best lawyer (the best example being the OJ Simpson case) and be proven innocent because the lawyer raised reasonable doubt. Also, wealthy business owners could get the government to move a smaller business/store, using eminent domain, and place their own business at the location, using the words “public use” to tell the people it was for them.

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Like Richard Nixon, I also feel like America’s new voters will always the key to our country’s brighter future. The younger generation of voters are not only more enthusiastic, but also have more of an understanding of what our continuously-evolving world needs. Based on their experiences, they know what type of government policies work and didn’t, and would also know the best types to solutions to fix this problem. I think that voting is extremely important factor to maintain a functional democracy and is a great way to figure out what our people need. I feel like our government should increase the voting turnout by not only making the voting registration process easier, but also by publicizing and educating the American people about local

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The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.

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In the United States, people always talk about freedom and equality. Especially they want elections could be more democratic. In American Democracy in Peril, Hudson’s main argument regarding chapter five “Election Without the People’s Voice,” is if elections want to be democratic, they must meet three essential criteria, which are to provide equal representation of all citizens, to be mechanisms for deliberation about public policy issues, and to control what government does. Unfortunately, those points that Hudson mentions are what American elections do not have. American elections do not provide equal representation to everyone in the country.

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