I think the Europeans have had the experience of having land be relatively more precious and it's use regulated and as nations having to live more closely.

The US has had plenty of land, and has smaller, tame, mostly English-speaking Canada on one side, and meek Mexico on the other.

In a way we're like an only child, have advantages and disadvantages. One of those is not learning to live closely with others who disagree. That shows up in all sorts of ways, one of them the World Court.

The agenda of the US government isn't out in the open, with the inevitable result that many expectations aren't going to be met. That leads to a lot of complaining. (It's about money. Always.)

We have a strange belief system in our country. We regard ourselves as rugged individuals, able to take care of ourselves. We're tough. But if anything goes wrong, someone or something else is to blame. And if nothing else, that will be government.

If there is a hurricane, the government didn't provide enough warning. Or didn't tell people it was going to change direction. Or didn't require buildings be built strong enough. Never mind that if they had, people would have complained then, too.

Therefore, Americans attitude toward government is extremely ambivalent. On the one hand we rail against regulations, on the other we blame the government if tires aren't safe.

Because of the cost of our electoral system, because we are so big, politicians are controlled by money. We call it "free speech", which is expensive as hell. To be elected every politician has to sell out to pressure groups.

A President of 80 years ago, Calvin Coolidge, said, "The business of the government is business". Dwight Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex, even though he was a Republican, and John McCain has told us they had taken over.

We think we have a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" which has business as it's biggest constituent. Without telling the people.

And, the US has a tradition of individual rights (used to, anyway) rather than promoting the general welfare as is done in Europe. We are used to complaining loud and long about any restriction. I remember when they first told me I couldn't burn trash in my backyard. I thought I'd been robbed, beaten, clubbed and hijacked. It was totally unfair. And then the started inspecting vehicles. I believed I was living in a police state.

Put it all together, and you have a government which the public holds responsible for everything, run by politicians who are beholden to money, working in the interests of business.

And extremely suseptible to the 10 second sound bite.

Arf