Reclaiming the Ideals of Civil Liberty and Rebuilding American Democracy - Term Paper Example

The ‘Founding Fathers’ agreed to support the Constitution as it is structured in the Articles of Organization only if the 10 Amendments subsequently known as the “Bill of Rights” were included in the contract, thus fundamentally guaranteeing the natural rights of all citizens against infringement or abrogation by the State. “Gridlock” as it is experienced in Washington D.C. today represents a system of government that the Anti-Federalists specifically warned against in the founding of the United States through the Constitutional Convention, “Bill of Rights” negotiation, and state ratification process.

In understanding how Jeffersonian ideals relate to “Athenian” democracy, and also how populism and progressivism present a historical framework for reform of the political system, the goal is to continue in the tradition of innovation in social institutions to make them more open, transparent, participatory, and non-violent as a basis of civil society.How do we end “gridlock” in the American Political System and modernize the Federal Government’s administrative infrastructure to make it a more perfect vehicle for dealing with the domestic and international challenges confronting our nation?

In beginning to answer this question, one must first appreciate the unparalleled opportunity open to America as the leading global power, as the world’s most advanced economy, as the most powerful military in the nuclear age, and as the leader of international discourse on issues of civil society. Where all of these aspects can be viewed as advantages or the reasons that America remains the dominant, unilateral superpower in the 21st Century, the same elements can also be experienced as cultural hegemony internationally.

If one considers the power of the American Federal Government, it is unparalleled in history. In order not to let the great promise of America go to waste and be squandered on self-serving, violent, and greedy policies which seek to concentrate as much wealth in as small of a percentage of the population as possible, the country needs to rethink the militarism that is symbolic of modern America and translate the ideals of American democracy into humanitarian service that addresses poverty and development issues internationally.

This involves an inversion of the paradigm of imperialism.The greatest tragedy will be if in the quest to become the world’s greatest empire and superpower America loses its own soul in abandoning the very ideals it was founded upon. The Founding Fathers themselves in America debated these issues during the time of the Constitutional Convention and its ratification process. As Pauline Maier states, “The biggest anachronism we struggle with is our sense that the Constitution is a virtually divine document and that the people who created it were almost holy, giants of intellect like nobody who has walked the Earth since.

The implication is that anyone who disagreed with them had to be beneath contempt. The Constitution was anything but a divine document in 1787 and 1788.