America's Democratic Elements

America has a constitution of mixed philosophical and theological validity that supposedly serves as a foundation for its entire governmental sphere.  This is one of the central features of American politics--not that a constitution should be revered simply because of tradition or emotion.  A constitution does not preclude elements of democracy, yet there is some controversy that one might encounter when describing America as democratic.  Various claims about the structure of American politics insist that the government of the United States is a democratic republic, a constitutional republic, or simply a republic.  The first two descriptions are the most thorough, and neither is false.  Democracy is a part of American politics as the former suggests even though there is more to acknowledge about the system than its democratic aspects.

No, America is not a pure democracy where the majority whims of the entire civilian population determines every law and policy so that a 51% consensus would trigger an immediate shift of policy.  The impact of voting in America is limited to appointing specific people to various positions for set periods of time.  While it would be erroneous to think of America as nothing but a democracy in the strictest sense of the word, it is also erroneous to think of America as nothing but a "constitutional republic."  It is possible for a government to be a mixture of political systems.  Indeed, America is democratic, but to call it a mere democracy would leave out many aspects of its political operations.

If America was not partly democratic, there would be no citizen voting at all.  This should not be difficult for anyone to understand, and yet some people will directly insist that America having a constitution and the structure of a republic prevent its political framework from overlapping with democracy.  To say such a thing expresses a deep misunderstanding of democracy.  Just as there are different forms of monarchy, there are different degrees and manifestations of democracy.  Democracy encompasses a spectrum.  A political body could be wholly democratic, meaning the majority decides everything about the country's governmental setup and activities, or it could be partly democratic.  America falls into the latter category.

The voting system is among America's most problematic issues: logical truths are unaffected by agreement and are therefore not reflected in democratic approaches to politics.  Even scientific and moral truths, which are just epistemological or metaphysical subsets of logical truths in one sense, have nothing to do with consensus.  It follows that no majority deserves to have their preferences etched into law by virtue of being the majority.  Unless any person or group, no matter how great or small, has reality on their side, their political ideas are meaningless.  Democracy pretends otherwise by protecting the majority's interests no matter how irrational, hypocritical, or dangerous they are.