keilany rivera <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Readings 6.1 and 6.2, the main argument is that the U.S. Constitution was created primarily by members of the wealthy elite. This group included large merchants, landowners, slave owners, and creditors\u2014people who had significant economic resources and a strong interest in maintaining property rights and social stability. The Framers were generally well-educated and financially secure, and their main concern was designing a political system that would protect wealth and preserve their social and economic position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, many groups were excluded from the constitutional process. These included working-class and lower-class individuals such as small farmers, wage laborers, enslaved people, and women\u2014people who did not own property and therefore had limited or no political power. The readings explain that most ordinary people had no direct role in drafting the Constitution. At the time, political participation was closely tied to property ownership and legal status, meaning that mainly white men with property had the right to vote and influence government decisions. Today, this has changed significantly, as legal equality allows most adults to vote and participate in the political system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fear of democracy can also be understood through class differences. The elites worried that too much democracy would give lower-class groups, such as debtors and small farmers, the power to pass laws that could harm wealthy interests\u2014for example, by canceling debts or redistributing property. As a result, they designed a system with checks and balances, indirect elections, and limits on direct popular control. These structures were intended to slow down majority power and protect elite interests from what they viewed as excessive democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
keilany rivera In Readings 6.1 and 6.2, the main argument is that the U.S. Constitution was created primarily by members of the wealthy elite. This group included large merchants, landowners, slave owners, and creditors\u2014people who had significant economic resources and a strong interest in maintaining property rights and social stability. The Framers were generally well-educated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11522,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-6-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11522"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13014,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13013\/revisions\/13014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}