ESSAY
"Importance of Public Opinion"
Categories
Excerpt (first and last two sentences)
"I find it
rather ironic that we as Americans are so proud of our democracy and government
– our freedom of choice, our liberty to opinion, our power to vote and influence
– and yet, it doesn’t seem to be working right now. We are presently two
hundred plus years after the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,
and our president and government refuse to listen to the outcry of the
public....
...If we stick to democracy, one of whose definitions is “the common
people, considered as the primary source of political power,” those votes should
count for something. Patrick Tyler’s first sentence of his New York Times
February 16th article reads: “The fracturing of the Western alliance
over Iraq and the huge antiwar demonstrations around the world this weekend are
reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United
States and world public opinion.”"