Maxwell Lord-Fry

Ms. Zimmer

English 15/16

16 April 2021

Why the U.S. Democracy is Dramatically Declining

Equality protected by the government within courts is dealing with police brutality and

seeing what’s fair or right no matter the person. With major events happening, the news media

and social media platforms tend to get out of hand with spreading information and rumors. So

much goes around and makes people think: Is this factual or opinionated? With news media

comes debates and the separation between people in the country that is getting worse and worse

everyday, whether it’s politically or just in general. People put themselves in cliques so much to

the point where it becomes toxic for them and the people around them. The United States

democratic legitimacy has declined since the Revolution because citizens’ trust in the system has

declined. This essay will analyze two reasons why this is true: Racial inequality in the Criminal

Justice System and the political division driven by media platforms.

First, let’s begin by looking at the racial inequality in the Criminal Justice System.

According to Pew Research Center, “Aspects that are often characterized as core tenets of

democracy, like rights to freedom of expression and fair courts, are important in understanding

people’s dissatisfaction… Confidence in the fairness of courts is also strongly related to

dissatisfaction with democracy.” One example from an article by The New York Times says that

an officer, specifically Officer Yanez from the George Floyd case, had, “... 22 complaints and

internal investigations. One of the episodes led to two letters of reprimand -- his only form of

discipline.” Policemen and the Criminal Justice System are supposed to represent the state, but
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some people within their states don’t really have the most trust in them and their decisions. If

there isn’t a fairness of courts, then people won’t want to have things heard that should be heard

because they are afraid of what would happen. Would it be fair? Will they get what they

deserve? Is the judge going to discriminate against me because of how I look or what I do? What

will the jurors think about me? Those are just a few of the many stressful questions some people

think about if/when they go to court. If they see that the courts don’t seem fair, they won’t have

that trust and faith in justice. Later in the article, it even says that Officer Yanez has also had an

episode where he put a black lady on the ground with her chest facing down and his knee on her

back. As this was happening, she was screaming and pleading, “Don’t kill me.” Having two

situations that mirror each other shows something. It’s especially disturbing that the Yanez has

had 22 formal complaints and two written ups for an episode and nothing happened to him and

his career as a punishment for anything. His police station let him “get away” with what he’s

done and they ignored the situations that were complained about. With these things events

happening, social media platforms tell the news and spread true information, but also false

information.

Social media today tells so many people so much different information that they don’t

know what is true and what is false. This makes people not want to actually listen to news and

learn information from sources that are trying to tell the true stuff. In an article named Why are

people dissatisfied with how democracy is working? says that, “A survey of 38 countries found

that people who are less satisfied with the functioning of the news media also tend to express less

trust in the government to do what is right for the country.” An example of not being able to trust

all media is that recently, Fox News reported that a Major League Baseball team wouldn’t go to

Georgia because of the voting laws. Because the MLB team decided to move their game to
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Colorado, Fox News decided to basically say that Colorado has the same voting laws and

restrictions as Georgia when in fact, they don’t have the same laws. Igor Derysh, in an article for

salon.com, explores how, “Colorado has one of the least restrictive voting systems in the U.S.,

has been praised as the ‘gold standard.’” To say that Fox News tried to say something that was

false to the public makes people wonder what else have they said that isn’t true. Where there is

no trust with the people for news media or their government, there is no smooth way of running

the government and country. Saying that people are not trusting the government really says

something about how news is spread whether it’s over social media platforms, the internet, or

even person to person. Having social media platforms also creates a separation in sides of an

argument whether it’s with politics in our country or things going on in other countries.

Seperation between people over political views is getting worse in today's world. People

hearing things from the news that are biased makes it all worse. People are listening to

information from a platform that is biased and says crap about the other side or exaggerating

what was actually said. The Conversation stated, “Recent polling data finds that nearly two-

thirds of Republicans see Democrats as “closed-minded,” while approximately half of Democrats

see Republicans as “immoral.” In 2016 only half of Republicans and a third of Democrats held

these views. Partisan antipathy is rising.” They also stated in the same article that, “Scholars

have argued that party affiliation determines trust in government. When one’s preferred party

controls government, that trust is high; when the opposing party has power, it’s low.” Some

people are set on their views and their views only. They don’t like listening to the other side and

if they do hear something from the opposing party, then it’s possibly biased or it could be

completely factual they just don’t want to make a compromise. People that don’t listen to other

opinions are very separated from other groups of people and that separation of the country
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doesn’t do anyone good. Going along with that if the opposing party gets elected, then there isn’t

as much trust because they didn’t want that person or party. The separation between parties is

diminishing the trust in the country as a whole as well as media platforms not helping with the

trust issues in the government whether it’s voting or the Criminal Justice System.

People do say that equality in the government is at a good level right now and that their

trust in the government is good. They may also say that people come together quite often and

things are running smoothly. However, the level of equality isn’t to the level that everyone is

seen as equals. This is represented through the Criminal Justice System as well as through police

brutality towards people of color and people’s trust in the system is declining at a rapid pace

because of this and because of what the media says. The media affects the separation between

people as well whether its based on politics or other top news and having so much different

information also declines the trust in the government resulting in the country's government as a

whole to decline. For all these reasons, the government’s legitimacy is in fact declining.

Works Cited

Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas, and Tim Arango. “What to Know About the Trial of Derek

Chauvin.” The New York Times, 17 Mar. 2021, nytimes.com/live/2021/derek-chauvin-trial-

explained.

Derysh, Igor. “MLB Pushback: Republicans Falsely Claim Colorado’s Voting Laws

Stricter than Georgia’s.” Salon, Salon, 6 Apr. 2021, salon.com/2021/04/06/mlb-pushback-

republicans-falsely-claim-colorados-voting-laws-stricter-than-georgias/?scrlybrkr=f8cc8b99.
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Mitch, Smith. “Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Killing of Philando Castile.” The New

York Times, 16 June 2017, nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/police-shooting-trial-philando-

castile.html.

Wike, Richard, et al. “Why Are People Dissatisfied with How Democracy Is Working?”

Pew Research Center, 29 Apr. 2019, pewresearch.org/global/2019/04/29/why-are-people-

dissatisfied-with-how-democracy-is-working/?scrlybrkr=7e81d217.