Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
Jill LePore attacks the relationship of America’s Democracy with its people over its history through the writings of various political activists and historians, most notably Thomas Jefferson, Noah Webster, Frederick Jackson Turner, and Sean Wilentz. She begins with an idealistic image presented to children regarding the positive impact of a Democracy in the United States. After all, it is important to establish an acceptance for the way the country operates into its citizens at a young age. Almost immediately after, however, LePore presents the arguments of Noah Webster and Thomas Jefferson ad they rivaled in their theories of who should hold control in the government.
Noah Webster was what one could call an elitist, while Thomas Jefferson argued for the masses of the people. LePore provides adequate evidence from both sides to shape their arguments, which both contain respectable logic. Webster was concerned that the “village idiot” had as much of a say in a Democratic government as a well-educated man, while Jefferson argued that that was exactly the moral way. These “monocrats” like Webster, however, lost influence and eventually became irrelevant as the Democratic government took hold in the early 19thCentury. It is interesting, however, to think about how history would have shaped itself had the reverse occurred, and what we would consider man’s rights to be today. Would the masses come to accept an elitist regime or would they have rebelled themselves, resulting in a Democracy at a later date?
LePore also presents Frederck Jackson Turner’s theory of land as the root of American Democracy. The United States was different; for a vast majority of its history there was always land to expand, thus land was available to the common man with much more availability than in Europe. Americans have European roots, and in Europe land was power. Thus by following the same idea, there was much more power to be shared in America than their ancestors previously experienced. As can be seen all over the world, once new segments of the population begin to gain political power at an increasing rate, more of the population comes to desire their share as well. With Turner’s theory, Democracy was inevitable. The resources in North America were too vast for the population to sit in content with a lesser role than some of their peers, allowing a small segment of the population to rule over them.
Lastly, LePore presents Sean Wilentz’s demonstrations of how individuals can indirectly affect politics through their actions. Even without political power, in his primary example, a slave is able to influence later legislation by attempting to revolt. This then became a political move, because if it had not happened, policies would not have been changed when they did. The people, therefore, don’t have to have “official” political power to influence politics.
Wilentz’s ideas, along with Democracy’s flaws of greed and corruption, tease at the idea of imperfections in a Democratic government.