Virtuous Republic APUSH
Essay:
Virtuous Republic
As Americans, we'd like to think we have come far in terms of overcoming hardships of all sorts: economic, racial, gender- related, sexuality- based, etc. It is true, that we have overcome various waves of adversity, but, such efforts seem minute compared to the big picture our founding fathers outlined. Yes, the women's movement in the 1940's was good. Yes, working towards racial equality in the '60's was good. But was there ever a national groundbreaking event that brought people together, rather than telling one group of individuals they were wrong and letting the other triumph? To be frank, we as people of the United States have not come that far, and maybe it is only human that we cannot be totally perfect in learning lessons from years passed. It is ignorant to assume otherwise.
The founding fathers put together ideas of what a utopian, attainable society would be, and what the citizens of that utopia would be like. They listed things such as
"educated and selfless" and "virtuous" for what a citizen should be, and agreed that a government should get its power from the citizens and that that power should be limited.
Unfortunately, today, much of the United States is not well-educated and/or selfless to the degree I imagine the founding fathers intended. "Virtuous" traits are hard to come by, and selfishness is much more common and even encouraged than selflessness. I could argue a whole essay why we are indeed a virtuous republic, but it wouldn't be honest.
1) Government gets it authority from its citizens. This point is idealistic, as are all the rest, but this one especially. Today, people fear the government much more than they trust and support it. Take Obamacare, for instance: a huge modern promise to all
Americans that health care would be easy and affordable to obtain, and if you didn't want to use this plan you could keep your own. The affordable care act turned out to be a huge flunk, adding billions to
Virtuous Republic
As Americans, we'd like to think we have come far in terms of overcoming hardships of all sorts: economic, racial, gender- related, sexuality- based, etc. It is true, that we have overcome various waves of adversity, but, such efforts seem minute compared to the big picture our founding fathers outlined. Yes, the women's movement in the 1940's was good. Yes, working towards racial equality in the '60's was good. But was there ever a national groundbreaking event that brought people together, rather than telling one group of individuals they were wrong and letting the other triumph? To be frank, we as people of the United States have not come that far, and maybe it is only human that we cannot be totally perfect in learning lessons from years passed. It is ignorant to assume otherwise.
The founding fathers put together ideas of what a utopian, attainable society would be, and what the citizens of that utopia would be like. They listed things such as
"educated and selfless" and "virtuous" for what a citizen should be, and agreed that a government should get its power from the citizens and that that power should be limited.
Unfortunately, today, much of the United States is not well-educated and/or selfless to the degree I imagine the founding fathers intended. "Virtuous" traits are hard to come by, and selfishness is much more common and even encouraged than selflessness. I could argue a whole essay why we are indeed a virtuous republic, but it wouldn't be honest.
1) Government gets it authority from its citizens. This point is idealistic, as are all the rest, but this one especially. Today, people fear the government much more than they trust and support it. Take Obamacare, for instance: a huge modern promise to all
Americans that health care would be easy and affordable to obtain, and if you didn't want to use this plan you could keep your own. The affordable care act turned out to be a huge flunk, adding billions to