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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, June 29 2012 @ 02:12 PM EDT |
I like your points - How others do things has little bearing on how the US does
things. Just as most other countries do - our circumstances are in many ways
unique.
We were born into nationhood through a revolution against taxation and foreign
rule. Consequently, things like raising taxes are a trigger point and cause
very strong visceral reactions in some of us. We were a frontier nation, and
also as a guard against the possible tyranny of our government(it was ONLY 200
years ago..) we covet our gun rights. We have historically been very
individualistic, consequently depending on the state for solutions to our
problems is foreign concept to us. We tend to believe that competition breeds
efficiency.
Now I grant you that these are "conservative" values, but most
Americans share some of these beliefs to a greater or lesser extent.
There is also the simple fact that "democracy" (We are really a
republic with a representative government) is a messy business with lots of
arguing, discussion, name-calling, etc involved in the process. We tend to air
all our dirty laundry in public much to the amazement of other nations. (Why do
they embarrass themselves so?)
If you look at "universal healthcare" through this prism you see that
it grinds against several of these character traits, i.e. higher taxation, State
run institution instead of a competitive environment, etc. So you get very angry
words on both sides.
Then there is the fact that we don't want to be just like Greece and many feel
we're on our way!
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