America, a Democracy? Essay -- essays research papers

America, a Democracy?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  America. What’s the first thought to come to your mind after hearing this? Democracy? Land of Rights? That would make sense. America, the land of the free. The land of opportunity. But is America really a democracy? A country for the people, by the people? To an extent, but not exactly. The people of this great country do not have unlimited rights and the freedom to do what they please. Many of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution are being limited and slowly being taken away.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since America is such a powerful country, it follows that the United States President is one of the most powerful figures in the world. Considering the United States is a democracy, it would seem obvious that the people directly elect their leader. Wrong. The popular vote has nothing to do with the election of the president. Instead, the way the president is decided is by whichever candidate wins the most electoral votes. Each state has a certain amount of electoral votes based on the number of people in that state’s House of Representatives. In most cases, the winner of the electoral vote is also the winner of the popular vote. In a few rare cases though the winner of the popular vote lost the election. This shouldn’t be. The U.S. should have the people directly elect the president. A most recent case was the last election of 2000, Bush vs. Gore. Gore had the popular vote won by a margin...