Xocrates wrote:Indeed, the question then is what makes you think the US is the norm?
This discussion actually made me think of how bizarre the US is among the international community, mostly because it's perhaps the only one western country that is so unabashedly right-wing, heck, you're probably one of the very few countries in the world where that's the case.
It's dubious that the Republicans would even manage to have significant parliamentary presence in any other country, much less an actual majority.
Well, 37% of American's make it around 115 million people identifying themselves as Republicans. I'm guessing that's not too far off any of the larger political movements in Europe, if we count them continentally.
As for being right wing, we've had an entirely different development experience. Europe was crowded when we had almost unlimited land. When Europeans felt they had to fight the elites to gain a fair shake, American's just moved to the next horizon.
Our foundation of our national experience, from our revolution to the great immigration tides, is based upon the basic idea of "if you think Europe has got it wrong, come here, cause we do too and we're doing something different."
And what's funny about this is the entire reason the world cares about America's President is because for all our faults, for all the short comings and failures, and a terrible price paid in sorting things out along the way, it's been a remarkable success.
Xarlaxas wrote:It doesn't, I was just pointing out the irony that the countries most similar to the US are places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. filled with exciting puritanical values and disturbingly religious politicians.
Heh, whereas many Americans look at the European secular glorification as major facilitators of the terror of the French Revolution, Fascism, and the Soviet Union and think "they just don't get it."
Again, different history. With a few exceptions, we haven't had the religious violence Europe has.
