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[Ask an American] Why is America so distrusting of their own government?
halkun
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Once upon a time I was asked by a European friend why on earth America is so distrusting, and at times, openly hostile towards our own government. This is something that difficult to answer individually. America is a big country, and there are many different people who live here. Being somewhat pan-cultural myself. I really hate painting any type of culture, including my own, with a broad stroke.
It did make me think for a bit though.
In the end I realized that this question comes about because foreigners don't have a good understanding on how America is "put together". Not only this, there are some cultural hang-ups that Americans have that they don't realize they have. However, when pointing it out, many of the Americans I talk to tend to agree with my view. I'm able to explain, at least for me, why we tend to distrust our government.
Before we were the United States of America, the name of the land here was called "Columbia". I like to think of Columbia as the name of the land "under" the United States. When our country popped into being, a small parcel of land in the shape of a diamond was created without statehood. It was a "District of Columbia", and named after our first president. Thus, Washington D.C. This seated the Federal Government that, in theory, coordinates and unites all the states together. Keep in mind for those with a weak grasp on U.S. Geography. Washington D.C. And Washington state are two different things and on opposite sides of the country. (I've seen people confused about this)
However, when it comes to paying for our country in the form of taxes, we do something really fucked up.
The question then comes up that if we don't like Washington so much, and we are so autonomous, why don't we just tell the Federal government to fuck off and leave us alone?
We did.
We lost.
During the civil war, the south attempted to assert state's rights and break away from the union. The war was a little more than North vs. South, and a fight to abolish of slavery, but also President Lincoln in the White House was trying to keep the states together. After the South lost, it was kind of set into our mind that Washington D.C. , and other states are willing to fight to keep the union from being broken. When you see Texas shake it's sabers and talk about succession, just remember that it's just hot air and they are full of shit.
But now here's the issue...
We live in a country where it's difficult for a State to assert it's rights against Washington D.C, however, it's really easy to the White house to assert it's rights over the rest of the union. Sometime Washington likes to assert things that are not culturally appropriate for some states. This is where lots of the gnashing of teeth comes from. When you understand this, you can understand why things like public heath care is such a hot-button topic. The states don't have enough cash to create their own, and the federal government tries to create a "once size fits all" solution that is broken with hundreds of compromises.
For sake of brevity to an otherwise long post already, I'm not going to go into interstate commerce and special interest lobbying, but there are other reasons we give Washington D.C. the stink-eye as well. I just want to pick at my own special theory and help educate our PA friends who live outside the United States.
I'm pretty open to question or comments of you want to add/comment on anything. I would like to have some of or foreign friends comment too. Has this been enlightening? Do you already know this due to your vastly superior educational system? I thinking about consolidating this as a YouTube sideshow speech and posting it. You have any input?
[TL;DR] Washington D.C. Like to piss on the states and it makes us mad and that's why we can't have healthcare. Let's talk about the U.S. From an outsider's view!
It did make me think for a bit though.
In the end I realized that this question comes about because foreigners don't have a good understanding on how America is "put together". Not only this, there are some cultural hang-ups that Americans have that they don't realize they have. However, when pointing it out, many of the Americans I talk to tend to agree with my view. I'm able to explain, at least for me, why we tend to distrust our government.
1)I hold a tighter allegiance to my state, than I do my country. 2)Washington D.C. Is not a state.To me, I am an "Wisconsinite" before I'm an "American". I have talked to Texans, Californians, New Yorkers, Floridians, and others, and have found that, in part, they feel the same way. This is why we almost never self-identify as Americans in our own country. To further explain why this is, I'm going to give you non-Americans out there a quick crash-course on American history and the structure of the country.
Before we were the United States of America, the name of the land here was called "Columbia". I like to think of Columbia as the name of the land "under" the United States. When our country popped into being, a small parcel of land in the shape of a diamond was created without statehood. It was a "District of Columbia", and named after our first president. Thus, Washington D.C. This seated the Federal Government that, in theory, coordinates and unites all the states together. Keep in mind for those with a weak grasp on U.S. Geography. Washington D.C. And Washington state are two different things and on opposite sides of the country. (I've seen people confused about this)
However, when it comes to paying for our country in the form of taxes, we do something really fucked up.
3)We get taxed twice on the same income. One tax goes to the state, the other goes to Washington D.C. 4)We don't often, and rarely see, a Return of Investment from Washington. 5)The taxes for our state is half of what counties of the same size are. We are underfunded.Now, here's another little fact about states many foreigners don't know. Each state in our union has our own Constitution. We also have our own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In fact, every state has the ability to run autonomously of the Federal Government in Washington, save for national defense. States don't have their own military, however, we do have our own militias, which are weaker and not supported by the government.
The question then comes up that if we don't like Washington so much, and we are so autonomous, why don't we just tell the Federal government to fuck off and leave us alone?
We did.
We lost.
During the civil war, the south attempted to assert state's rights and break away from the union. The war was a little more than North vs. South, and a fight to abolish of slavery, but also President Lincoln in the White House was trying to keep the states together. After the South lost, it was kind of set into our mind that Washington D.C. , and other states are willing to fight to keep the union from being broken. When you see Texas shake it's sabers and talk about succession, just remember that it's just hot air and they are full of shit.
But now here's the issue...
We live in a country where it's difficult for a State to assert it's rights against Washington D.C, however, it's really easy to the White house to assert it's rights over the rest of the union. Sometime Washington likes to assert things that are not culturally appropriate for some states. This is where lots of the gnashing of teeth comes from. When you understand this, you can understand why things like public heath care is such a hot-button topic. The states don't have enough cash to create their own, and the federal government tries to create a "once size fits all" solution that is broken with hundreds of compromises.
For sake of brevity to an otherwise long post already, I'm not going to go into interstate commerce and special interest lobbying, but there are other reasons we give Washington D.C. the stink-eye as well. I just want to pick at my own special theory and help educate our PA friends who live outside the United States.
I'm pretty open to question or comments of you want to add/comment on anything. I would like to have some of or foreign friends comment too. Has this been enlightening? Do you already know this due to your vastly superior educational system? I thinking about consolidating this as a YouTube sideshow speech and posting it. You have any input?
[TL;DR] Washington D.C. Like to piss on the states and it makes us mad and that's why we can't have healthcare. Let's talk about the U.S. From an outsider's view!
halkun on
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Far predates this.
I have no doubt that more democratic accountability will improve governance in many poor countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. East Asia is different, however, insofar as it has a very long tradition of relatively high-quality centralized bureaucratic government. This begins with Shang Yang’s reforms in the early state of Qin, and continues to this day in the extraordinary record of the Chinese Communist Party in bringing China through one of the most complex economic transformations one can imagine. Many East Asians today wonder whether rapid democratization will in fact help or hurt the quality of governance there. What they don’t have is either democratic accountability or rule of law.
Conversely, I would argue that the quality of governance in the US tends to be low precisely because of a continuing tradition of Jacksonian populism. Americans with their democratic roots generally do not trust elite bureaucrats to the extent that the French, Germans, British, or Japanese have in years past. This distrust leads to micromanagement by Congress through proliferating rules and complex, self-contradictory legislative mandates which make poor quality governance a self-fulfilling prophecy. The US is thus caught in a low-level equilibrium trap, in which a hobbled bureaucracy validates everyone’s view that the government can’t do anything competently. The origins of this, as Martin Shefter pointed out many years ago, is due to the fact that democracy preceded bureaucratic consolidation in contrast to European democracies that arose out of aristocratic regimes.
Far, far predates this.
In its current form it's largely Reaganite. Eight scariest words in the English language being "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" and what not. The federal government being evil is quite a lot older, yes.
True, but it sounds like the basic fear is "I don't want someone from DC/Brussels telling me what to do when I have someone from Albany/London to do that for me." There are other differences too, but I think that's the main similarity.
I like the article Loren posted about centralization and bureaucratic tradition.
Yeah, I mostly agree. Just in a nit picky mood, I guess.
I haven't read Fukuyama's new book yet, but it seems to have some interesting ideas about good governance through bureaucracy.
Also: I've always been a bit weirded out by the, to me, excessive fear of government in the US, so I'm looking forward to this thread.
And now, never again.
The way I look at it, I'd say the motive was slavery and States' Rights was the argument used to protect it. Would that make sense?
No, it was pretty much slavery as the argument to protect it. Slavery was viewed as an intrinsic good by the Confederacy. States' Rights was the argument used to justify it after they lost and the 14th Amendment passed.
That's about right, yeah. Slavery was the thing the South wanted to protect, so it was about States' Rights... to be slave states. People try to amputate that last bit, but it was the #1 issue.
Anyway, in regards to the OP, it is interesting to realize that I think of myself more as a Washingtonian than an American (not that Washington, the other one). I'm proud to be American, I suppose, but more proud to be Washingtonian. And even more proud to be a Western Washingtonian.
Nationalism is shit and state-ism is just a slightly different flavor of shit.
I take pride only in my own accomplishments and my own good actions. accidents of birth will never give me pride, nor will they ever give me a reason to hate another human.
The lies start with doctors, by telling us to eat a mainly grain diet, that us as humans aren't supposed to eat naturally. The way Americans eat is kind of like how kings use to eat back in the day, except we use cheap and widely accessible scavenger animals, like chicken, pork, and Turkey. 80% of Americans are living with parasites in their bodies. We have food that is fortified with vitamins we can't even break down naturally. And this was all made possible by lobbyists. I hate American capitalism, and its spreading like wild fire. Plus the whole idea of modern American medicine is just witchcraft, all we do is treat symptoms, and the pills we take to treat one symptom cause another and so on and so forth. And what should really be happening is doctors should tell us that all we need to do is eat a raw diet, pretty much a vegan lifestyle to keep our bodies unpoosioned, and to live past 100 and still be active. All these diseases that humans get is all due to our diet. But if too many people knew the truth, well then the big companies wouldn't make money.
It is sick what is allowed to be told and done to American consumers.
Uh huh.
Now you'll tell us the truth behind the 9/11 conspiracy, right?
I've just started reading into the American Civil War, and I'd have to disagree. The Confederacy was pretty blunt that slavery was the deal-breaking issue, because it had become central to so much of their economy. The intellectual arguments essentially followed the trend of, "...but if we lose all of this free labour, we will never be able to run all of these plantations, and we'll all starve."
The rest of the arguments were ideologically driven (slave holding was a God-given right, the Africans wouldn't know what to do / wouldn't have lives if you let them free, etc).
If States' Rights did eventually enter the conversation, it was well after the fact.
A pure vegan diet severely weakens the body. A complete lack of protein is a really bad idea for a diet and Veganism would be impossible if it weren't for the unnatural supplements we invented.
Furthermore as your supposed perfect diet is possible now I'd like to know why there arn't a bunch of people living past 100 years old?
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
The lies start with doctors, by telling us to eat a mainly grain diet, that us as humans aren't supposed to eat naturally. The way Americans eat is kind of like how kings use to eat back in the day, except we use cheap and widely accessible scavenger animals, like chicken, pork, and Turkey. 80% of Americans are living with parasites in their bodies. We have food that is fortified with vitamins we can't even break down naturally. And this was all made possible by lobbyists. I hate American capitalism, and its spreading like wild fire. Plus the whole idea of modern American medicine is just witchcraft, all we do is treat symptoms, and the pills we take to treat one symptom cause another and so on and so forth. And what should really be happening is doctors should tell us that all we need to do is eat a raw diet, pretty much a vegan lifestyle to keep our bodies unpoosioned, and to live past 100 and still be active. All these diseases that humans get is all due to our diet. But if too many people knew the truth, well then the big companies wouldn't make money.
It is sick what is allowed to be told and done to American consumers. Alvocados provide fats and protien, almonds, garbonza beans, there are lots of ways of getting good fats. Good fats kill bad fats. As long aas we stay away from stuff that our body turns into insulin, too much of that is bad. We need to stay away from unsaturated fats, and oils that turn into unsaturated fats at high temps. Thus I reccomend using extra virgin coconut oil.
You are right, you don't need to be vegan, but if you choose to eat mmeat, eat good meat. Stay away from chicken, turkey, cow ans pork. Try instead antelope, elk, venisson, and for birds, if you must eat a bird, eat a wild bird, so that way it willl be lean meat. Because we are what we eat, so if we eat unhealthy meat that is pumped full of preserves, we will be ungealty and face consequences for poisoning our bodies, like colds, allergies, and things of that nature.
In countries other than America, there are plenty of people who do nnot lead sedentary lifestyles who live past 100, but since its not American we dont care.
o.o
I am not an expert in nutrition, but the idea that 'good fats kill bad fats' is ridiculous at face value.
Western culture eats far too much sugar, and I'm becoming increasingly of the persuasion that such high doses of sugar (especially in combination with a lack of fibre) is toxic, but your 'advice' screams of irrational paranoia / New Age bullshit.
As an American, I lived a toxic lifestyle, it lead to diabetes. I wanted to not have diabetes and didn't like how a doctor was going to fix it. I started asking my cousin who lives a raw lifestyle questions. He gave me info that led me toto watch things on YouTube, I would show you if I wasnt using my evo to post. I started reading on colon health and realized a healthy colon leads to a long and prosperous life. To maintain colon health you need a good diet. I realized I had parasites and fungus and yeast living in my g.I. tract. The bad foods, such as fast food and starches are shit, and pork has parasites. I ate both of these. Parasites love yeast, and when enough yeast forms it turns to fungus that bloats us, controls our diet and us. When it becomes 51% of us, it is us. We get hunger pangs for certain food, well its more like the parasite is hungry and letting you know it, and telling you what he wants to eat, by cravigg food that was chemically made to be addictive. I am still a student in this lifestyle, I love to share, so aka away people. Youtube raw lifestyles
Especially.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
Yeah but you get the government you deserve and the people that demand to be represented by supporters of silly positions and the people who see politics as by itself corrupt and don't care/vote deserve the government we have.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
I use to think the same way until I tried it and saw results.
I posted this in [chat] a while ago; the obvious response is that it's not really obvious that France has a history of trust in government. I would say that there is indeed an unusual deference to its civil service, which is another thing altogether.
A parliamentary or even semi-presidential system is probably going to be less inclined toward hobbling the executive via legislative rules. Do presidential systems anywhere have a good record? Isn't the United States even unexpectedly good in this regard?
I lack a strong vocabulary to which I can properly articulate my thoughts and ideas, so sorry if I sound like a high school kid who just read some new age healing book.
The manner of politics you have right now already enjoys legitimacy. You're not advocating anything that can be changed by any elected office or implemented policy, you want a wholesale change in what kind of government people want.