Some events are the most important and key for the history of the state. Such days are holidays in order to draw special attention of the population to certain dates, and also not to forget the importance of historical turns in the development of society. However, not all incidents are considered national holidays. It is necessary to analyze why Election Day cannot be a national holiday.
First of all, it should be noted that a holiday should be an event that has become a turning point or key in the history of a particular state. United States is characterized by a democratic form of government, which implies the institution of electing officials in power. In other words, it is a consequence of a certain structure of society, and not an independent achievement of history or an incident (Lithcman 101). All democratic countries have elections, which suggest that this phenomenon is not exclusively an American symbol. This means that the event is not of a national character, and therefore cannot be a holiday.
It is also necessary to emphasize that elections do not take place once in history, but once in a certain period. In addition, this event has a variable date, so it is not possible to assign a specific day to an event (Lithcman 289). Finally, elections are a dynamic event with which constantly changing personalities are associated; accordingly, fixing certain elections in a certain year as a holiday does not make sense.
There is an opposing point of view, the essence of which is that the process of choosing presidential candidates is a key act of expression of will for every citizen. This is true, but this event is not the only one that performs such a function. According to this logic, every opportunity to exercise constitutional rights can become a national holiday, but it is important to emphasize that human rights are natural, not deserved (Lithcman 178). Thus, people should not celebrate natural processes as a holiday, as this is contrary to the concept of democracy.
As a conclusion, it should be emphasized that a national holiday should be considered a static phenomenon that has drastically affected a particular nation. In the case of presidential elections, the situation is different, since democracy implies the right to vote as a direct consequence. Thus, this phenomenon cannot be interpreted as a national holiday, as long as citizens passively accept that human rights are a gift to be thanked for.
Work Cited
Lithcman, Allan J. The embattled vote in America. From the founding to the present. Harvard University Press, 2018.
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