Ameican Political System Essay Research Paper Does

Ameican Political System Essay, Research Paper

Does the American Political system meet the needs of the American People.

“My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government — he promised Dad he’d go straight” John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It s not whether or not the system can meet the needs of America, rather, why it does not the politicians. The American political system cannot meet the needs of the American people because the right people are not elected to office. The right people are not elected to office because they are usually new to politics, which means they start at the bottom as underdogs. As underdogs they need to run against wealthy politicians who build their campaigns on gold foundations, or ones who use dirty politics and mudslinging to divert attention from issues. They also need to fight the two party system that prevents alternative ideas from being expressed.

One of the most difficult obstacles to overcome for new politicians is gathering the financing necessary to run a successful campaign. Finding backers for new politicians is an extremely difficult task. They have little or no political past for their financial supporters to back, and without strong ties to their party, they are not necessarily going to receive campaign funds from one of the two primary parties. However, for long time politicians, who are usually the wrong representatives because of corruption that develops over time, raising money is an easy task. Because of this corruption, these politicians can easily lean on people they have developed strong ties with for money. Whether it is to a big business that has interest in a new hazardous waste policy not passing, that knows it can rely on this particular legislator, or a wealthy individual who doesn t want the new tax increase on the wealthy that also knows from previous experience, he can rely on this legislator. With all of these options for campaign donations, these campaigns can afford to be equipped with all of the bells and whistles to create an image for themselves, which they basically have bought. These conditions make it difficult for the new and upcoming politicians to get anywhere with their career. In New Jersey, political novice Jon Corzine, a Democrat, proved that money counts. The former chief executive of the Goldman Sachs investment firm spent a Senate campaign record of $60 million, mostly his own money, to fill a vacant Democratic seat. It doesn t make much sense for someone to run a campaign at the cost of millions of his or her own money to get a job that pays $100,000 per year. On September 22, 2000, the White House released a list of overnight guests in attempt to counter allegations that Hillary Clinton had been rewarding people making contributions to her Senate campaign. The list contained over 361 names, which Clinton had claimed were helping her to decide whether or not to run for office. After investigating the names, it was found that 100 had donated money to Clinton s campaign (Associated Press; September 22, 2000). The worst part about this list is that it only highlights guests of the White House after July 1st, 1999. It does not include guests during the previous 7 years of President Clinton s term in office, during which it is speculated there have been hundreds of other guests overnight at the White House. People such as Corzine and Hillary Clinton have their own agendas, agendas that are not the same as what the American people want. Why else would a person spend 60 million dollars of their own money to become elected to a position that pays a meager $100,000. They are buying their way into our government; they are buying themselves the opportunity to make the country run more as they see it. People that spend so much of their money to get elected aren t doing it so that they can change the system for the better; they re doing it so they can change it to meet their needs. By doing this, they are preventing those new politicians who would be better suited for the job and better suited to serve the American people as a whole, from being elected.

Another problem that new politicians and good politicians alike are faced with is dirty politics. Campaigns based on mudslinging and finger pointing are becoming more and more popular. When someone with a good track record in local or state government, and an image as a person who really is there for the people, is running for an office, incumbents seek to destroy this person at all costs. When they realize that they can t win fairly, they resort to dirty tactics. Whether it be to dig up all of the person s life for the smallest blemish, or to slam them with negative television advertisements, there can be some way, other than battling over the issues, to prevent this person from taking the incumbents job. And it s not always the incumbent leader who has to resort to these tactics. When the office, or seat is open, often one candidate will show himself or herself as being willing to stoop to these levels in order to prevent the other candidate from being elected. Take for instance, the epitome of dirty politics. With less than one week less before the Presidential election, news of a GOP candidate George W. Bush s DUI conviction of more than 20 years prior is leaked into the press. Within one week of hitting headlines, it was found that the Democratic Party was directly associated to the DUI information being leaked into the media. Another instance