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Rousseau's Influence On The Relationship Between Citizens And Their Government

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Since the establishment of society and government there has always been a struggle between what is best for the government and its citizens as whole and what is best for its leaders. The Federal government and its leaders have been known to exploit public events and tragedies for the wrong reasons including, using these events to push its own agenda and influencing public opinion to that of its own belief. The exploitation of these events not only violate the intended agreement between citizens and their government, but it violates basic moral principles.
The federal government, the top governing body of the United States, always has the citizen’s best interest in mind. While some may agree with it, there is evidence to suggest otherwise. In …show more content…

Although racial tension was a factor in regard to the shooting, the president emphasized the racial issue to the point where it triumphed over the actual matter at hand, which was nine people were shot and killed. This is where issues in the relationship between governmental leaders and it citizens arise; the leader is not emphasizing and finding solutions to the actual problem, he is emphasizing and solving the issues that he wants. According to Rousseau, power only lies within the agreement made between a governing body, and its citizens, but when the leader is taking advantage of unstable situations to push his own ideas, which is a clear violation of the …show more content…

A few months following the Charleston shooting, a man shot and killed two journalist in Virginia on a live television broadcast. This man, who was African American, proceeded to let his reason be known that it was in response to the Charleston shootings and that he was trying to start a race war; obviously, this was an act of racism, because the guy admitted it. But Obama seemed to dust over this shooting, although he did speak about how the violence was wrong and additional gun control was needed, he did not seem to put as much attention on it as the previous shootings. This is because at the time of the shooting he was trying to convince congress and the public to accept his Iran deal, and implement added environmental legislation, so to push public opinion he did not want to take the limelight off of what he was promoting, and put the spotlight back on gun control and racial tensions. Therefore, the shooting was not given much media time even though the tragedy is till the same, people lost their lives. To gloss over such a tragic, yet important event, because they did not want the public to lose focus over what the government believes is more important is

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