Democracy

After reading Walt Whitman’s Democratic Vistas, I believe America’s democracy is no longer regard with the esteem it once had. There was once a strong devotion to protecting the ideals of one’s country and believing future generations would find it in themselves to continue the tradition of making America a better place - not that there aren’t people who still do this. Walt Whitman speaks of a time when America’s democracy was threatened and many Americans felt they had a responsibility to themselves and their country to maintain their democracy. I feel Americans and today’s democracy are no longer like the Americans and democracy Walt Whitman spoke of. I feel democracy has become something everyday Americans leave to the politicians, thus moving more towards a republic. I feel Americans are accepting of this because their personal freedoms are not being threatened in the process or they are unaware of the transition from a democracy to a republic.  

Throughout Walt Whitman’s Democratic Vistas he emphasizes that democracy can be found within every individual, “Then it is also good to reduce the whole matter to the consideration of the single self, a man, a woman, on permanent grounds.” Every individual has the power to bring about democracy. It then becomes the individual’s responsibility to come together with others to allow democracy to flourish. I feel this is where today’s democracy falls apart. For the most part, Americans no longer pride themselves on governing the country and personally upholding the ideals of democracy. We are leaving this to the people we elect, those who are willing to speak for the masses. I feel this is not the community Whitman spoke of when he said, “where a couple of hundred best men and women, of ordinary worldly status, have by luck been drawn together, with nothing extra of genius or wealth, but virtuous, chaste, industrious, cheerful, resolute, friendly and devout.” Democracy will be successful when every American finds it in himself/herself to work for all Americans. This is why America is becoming more of a republic, our democracy is no longer a “for the people by the people” but a by these people for those people.

When reading the Democratic Vistas, I came across an idea that has remained somewhat the same from Walt Whitman’s democracy to our democracy. Whitman speaks of unknown soldiers who were willing to fight and eventually die to preserve their ideals. He called them, “The People, of their own choice, fighting, dying for their own idea, insolently attack’d by the secession-slave-power, and its very existence imperil’d.” The people as people are more powerful than the known. Everyday Americans who come together to protect their ideals are more powerful and moving than a political figurehead who represents the democratic ideals. I believe this is the strong end of democracy in America and will continue to be the strong end because it illustrates the driving forces behind democracy – the ability to utilize personal freedoms. Democracy allows us to think, speak, and act freely. If these freedoms were to be threatened, Americans today would easily become comparable to the unknown soldiers who tried to defend their ideals.

Whitman later goes on to say, “We have frequently printed the word Democracy. Yet I cannot too often repeat that it is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawaken’d, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen to tongue.” Americans then and Americans now struggle with the meaning of democracy because so many Americans are unable to find it in themselves to contribute to democracy. How can America have an effective democracy if not all of its citizens chose not to partake in the one thing most important to our democracy, voting? If we are to understand democracy, we need to care about democracy. To understand democracy, we need to do more than simply lookup the definition of democracy and say we now understand. To understand our democracy, we need to become immersed in democracy. We need to realize that if we want our democracy to affect us, we need to affect it.