U.S. Political System Strength and Weakness, Essay Example

The greatest strength of the U.S. political system is the separation of church and state. I am still amazed at the wisdom of the founding fathers of the U.S. who understood that true freedom and rights for every citizen, especially those from minority groups, could only be ensured if the state endorses no particular religion. This may be the reason why U.S. particularly attracts talent from all around the world because religious prejudice is at quite lower levels as compared to many other developed and developing nations. European Jews particularly came to the U.S. during and after holocaust because they knew they will not face religious persecution here and if U.S. was like most other countries, we would never have Einstein, Andy Grove, and many others. In addition, this has also helped minimize ethnic and religious conflict in the country.

One significant weakness of our political system is the huge influence of money which harms the spirit of democracy in the country. In true democracy, the voice of an ordinary citizen is heard and his rights are protected by the officials but in the U.S., senators and congress representatives often give in to corporations, lobbyists, and interests groups because they depend upon them for financial support. As a result, the interests of the few often take precedence over the interests of the many and one example of the recent failure of gun control laws because few lawmakers gave in to the pressure of NRA. Thus, some form of regulation should be introduced to reduce the influence of money in politics such as putting an upper limit on how much a candidate can spend on his/her political campaign and this limit should be such that most candidates should be able to raise the funds through donations from ordinary citizens alone.