User:LPcoolguy/Popular sovereignty and individual rights essay

From the beginning of time, people have always enjoyed pursuing the activities that they wished to do. That is why they despise it when others tell them what they can or cannot do. No matter what region one is in the populated world, there will always be certain guidelines or customs that apply, but sometimes people believe that the figures of authority make policies that they would deem unnecessary. Being human, everyone would like to assure that the authority figure in power will be reasonable and that they be treated no less than equals to everybody else under the authority’s law. Throughout the past there has been segregation, persecution, unfair treatment, etc. to people that are different than the dominating group. This directly contradicts these ideals. When the founding fathers wrote the Constitution of the United States of America they found ways to fix these tribulations. Popular sovereignty and individual rights are two main principles found in the Constitution. The first step in obtaining a strong government is pleasing the citizens. The best way to do this is to assure them that they will benefit from the society and giving them certain rights such as freedom to practice one’s own religion. This idea is called individual rights. Individual rights are clearly found in the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, where there are given to American citizens rights to vote, speak freely, bear arms, arrange a petition, and many others. People hate it when they are told that they are not allowed to do things, they like to stand up for their beliefs. Therefore, a government that does not give individual rights to the people may and will eventually spawn a rebellion. Individual rights is a principal that drives the Constitution and has kept the United States alive.

Another principle that is incorporated in The Constitution is popular sovereignty, or having the people elect their leaders that are in power only for certain periods of time. This principle goes hand in hand with individual rights because it is putting the power in the hands of the citizens. Is it not true that forever people have disliked many leaders and have resented their somewhat questionable choices? Popular sovereignty is a key aspect of a democracy and assures that the majority of the people in the United States will appreciate their leaders. Popular sovereignty also removes a very critical aspect of governments such as monarchies and dictatorships, dynasty. No one inherits power therefore there is much less influence from the past leaders to the newly elected. With the people electing government officials there will be less chance of rebellion. The founding fathers took this into account as they formed the Constitution, and that is why popular sovereignty is a principle that drives The Constitution.

There is not much else to say about this topic but that because of looking at the past and seeing that monarchy was not what the US needed, the founding fathers created the constitution for the people. And the best way to do this was to incorporate two key principles, individual rights and popular sovereignty.