07-24-2012, 12:56 PM
I love America, it has so much wonderful stuff and it does so many wonderful things. It does tend to be a land of extremes though. I was waiting for a bus outside the LA Disneyland when I was there and started a conversation with a homeless guy who couldn't afford health care to get better from a treatable illness, which prevented him from getting a job. Having spent the day in one of the most opulent places on Earth, it really did make me wonder why America could not afford universal health care.
This was two years ago. As a neutral observer (actually not quite neutral, I lean to the right politically), I can't help but shake my head at the constitutional challenge to the Obamacare package.
Also, while I support lower taxes, particularly for the low and middle classes, I also don't understand why Republican voters tend to get so upset about tax rises on those earning over $250kpa.
I really don't mean to be offensive or say that our system here in Australia is better, or could even work in the USA, but there are some aspects of American political culture which seem so strange. In Australia we tend to have centrist governments which generally respect legislation enacted by previous governments (we had universal healthcare put through in the 70s and despite the opposition to it by many in more recent governments, the legislation largely stands).
In America there tends to be a far greater culture of appealing to the constitution to enact social change instead of changing governments. Roe vs Wade settled a moral issue that the authors of the constitution could never have forseen it being used for. In Australia, that issue has been settled by electoral mandate, but if new information comes to light, or the people of this country decide that they had changed their minds about it, changing the law would be relatively easy compared to what is required to change it in the US. Pretty much everyone in the western world knows what the second amendment is and what it means for Americans.
The long and the short of it - America is a great country, but it has a strange political culture.
This was two years ago. As a neutral observer (actually not quite neutral, I lean to the right politically), I can't help but shake my head at the constitutional challenge to the Obamacare package.
Also, while I support lower taxes, particularly for the low and middle classes, I also don't understand why Republican voters tend to get so upset about tax rises on those earning over $250kpa.
I really don't mean to be offensive or say that our system here in Australia is better, or could even work in the USA, but there are some aspects of American political culture which seem so strange. In Australia we tend to have centrist governments which generally respect legislation enacted by previous governments (we had universal healthcare put through in the 70s and despite the opposition to it by many in more recent governments, the legislation largely stands).
In America there tends to be a far greater culture of appealing to the constitution to enact social change instead of changing governments. Roe vs Wade settled a moral issue that the authors of the constitution could never have forseen it being used for. In Australia, that issue has been settled by electoral mandate, but if new information comes to light, or the people of this country decide that they had changed their minds about it, changing the law would be relatively easy compared to what is required to change it in the US. Pretty much everyone in the western world knows what the second amendment is and what it means for Americans.
The long and the short of it - America is a great country, but it has a strange political culture.
Disarm you with a smile 