Minority Rule in America

Minority Rule in America

Alexis de Tocqueville discussed how he believed that majority rules in the United States. He writes about how the majority in America has control over the opinions of the masses and how people do not think for themselves. The latter part of that is true. The masses do not form many of their own opinions but these opinions are not given to them, like Tocqueville says, by the majority. These "ready made opinions" (Tocqueville 11) are given to American people by a powerful few. Tocquville's writing does not apply to the US today because several kinds of minorities wield inordinate amounts of power in modern American society.

The media is the main source of information for America today. Tocqueville would call the media the "intellectual authority"(Tocqueville 13) in America. "Everybody there adopts great numbers of theories, on philosophy, morals, and politics, without inquiry"(Tocqueville 11) These forms of media, newspapers, television and radio to name a few are filled with opinions and ideas that people just accept. Many of the leading media corporations are run by a handful of people. This means that the ideas and opinions that the masses are accepting are those ideas and opinions of a certain few people, a minority.

The President of the United States is the single most powerful person in America. "A president can cause immeasurable harm (or good) purely on his own authority"(Alterman 12). Today is a very important time concerning the future of the Presidency and our country. The elections are coming up. The only two candidates who really have a chance of being our next President are Al Gore and George W. Bush. Both of these are wealthy, white, Christian family men. Political and economic power is in the hands of a few, like Gore and Bush. These candidates along with their corporate backers represent such a small number of people in our country that it constitutes minority rule.

Religion has ingrained itself into mainstream American politics. The current Reform Party and many portions of the Republican party platforms evidence this.

The Religious right, who supports the Republican candidate, wants to "bring America back to moral sanity" in the words of Jerry Falwell, one of the movements founders. The reason that they want this is so they can have control of the masses. "Religion itself holds sway much less as a doctrine of revelation than as a commonly received opinion.