Challenges and Opportunites of Democracy

            I feel that some of the opportunities the democracy is has is basing decisions of what has happened in the past. Our democracy has been around for quite some time allowing people to realize what has and has not worked in the past. This can allow for politicians to make better decisions or to sit down and figure out what might work better for America’s future. On the flip side this can promote challenges as well. The challenges can be based from the bills that have not passed, but they would like to see them pass. For example, the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell bill has been passed around Congress before, and was back again last year. The Democrats had failed to get the 60 signatures it needed to be approved (Jaffe, Dwyer). This brings our Congress to face a challenge when bills are repealed. President Obama stated “…finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are” (Goldman). Now the Congress and military are facing challenges with current military members and how they feel. Some that are gay and lesbian have spoken out, while other members are simply filling out surveys so Congress can get a better understanding of how they feel. This brings our democracy an opportunity, though, because they are able to repeal this act and then look at studies of actual military members and family members (Jaffe, Dwyer). I feel based on this example our democracy is opening up and being a democracy by letting the people that will be affected have a say in what is going on through Congress. If more of these actions took place with the public (survey’s etc.) I feel more people might want to be educated in politics and vote in elections. So why does it feel like the public is left out of a lot of choices that our government makes for us?

Dwyer, Devin; Jaffe, Matthew. (2010). Sentae Republicans Block Defense Bill, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-vote-repeal-ban-gays-military/story?id=11685658&page=1

Goldman, Russel. (2009). Gays Applaud Obama for Pledge to Appeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/State_of_the_Union/gays-applaud-obama-pledge-repeal-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy-state-of-the-union/story?id=9687078