Reflection on The Debate

I am sincerely proud of myself and my team in the government debate, and I feel like I learned a lot in the process. I am not the best at thinking and speaking on my feet, but I think I am improving a lot.

The format for the debate was much more structured than those before, and I think that was helpful. And because of the large number of groups, we couldn't dwell on one point for too long, and were able to come up with more specific attacks and examples. I also think I did a much better job of preparing for the debate. It's very interesting to have to think critically about democracy, because we have all been brought up with it. It forced me to evaluate a lot of assumptions I have about this system of government.

I believe Emma was the person who said after time, each team started to really take on the government they'd been assigned to as their own. It's true in my case. After this debate, I have a firmer belief in the democratic system. If we want people to be responsible citizens in a society, we have to trust them with a responsibility!

The United States was criticized multiple times during the debate, since the country does not always live up to it's democratic ideals, and as of late, the government seems somewhat incapable of making serious decisions. The US Government does not always seem like the government my group described in the debate. There are no direct elections on the national level. Even the president is decided by the electoral college, so if you are living in a state which votes for a different candidate than you, your vote is no longer counted. You can vote for one of two parties(yes, there's more- but they never have a serious impact), and the party politics take it from there. Madison argued that the creation of factions like these is unfortunate but inevitable, and in a large, diverse country such as the US, the several opposing factions will cancel each other out, so that none is too powerful. I am not sure whether or not this is true. I see a lot of factions cancelling each other out on either side, but I feel as though it is only creating an unnecessary deadlock, and people become distracted from the most important issues by random topics which are less significant to the country as a whole. This creates space for some individuals and lobbying groups to hold a larger amount of power behind the scenes. The two-party system feeds into this, and I think it is very flawed in it's current state.

In spite of this, the United States is still a functioning, powerful country. And it is not the only example we have, or even the best example if we are talking about direct democracy. The great thing about democracy is that it can fit a wide variety of populations, because the people can create and influence it so that it represents them best.