Americans' opinion on their government

[Ragnarr Lodbrok]

How do Americans rate their government, it's internal and foreign policy?

[DrP]

It depends on which party the American votes for.

[John Cuthber]

I suspect there are something like 300,000,000 opinions.

[iNow]

How do Americans rate their government, it's internal and foreign policy?

Disappointing, dysfunctional, and very often downright disturbing.

[MigL]

Well its a good thing I didn' t vote for it, then, isn't it iNow ?

How about you ?

[iNow]

Of course, I voted. I'd rather have my voice go unheard than to have no voice at all. Our problems are not improved by ignoring them or pretending we play no role in what led to them.

[MigL]

No, no really.

I had no part of the American government debacle.

( although I still feel free to criticise the American system )

 

I'm Canadian.

We have our own problems.

 

Although I gotta tell you, given a choice, the US would be my second choice of places to live.

( no matter how much I, or others, may criticise it )

[neutrinosalad]

How do Americans rate their government, it's internal and foreign policy?

 

On the smaller local scale, the government does its job outside of being warped in some ways by special interests groups.

 

On the large scale, the American government is extremely inefficient. What I see in a lot of people is frustration due to the fact that the government is either inefficient or ineffective at tackling problems that affect most American people.

[Phi for All]

 

On the large scale, the American government is extremely inefficient. What I see in a lot of people is frustration due to the fact that the government is either inefficient or ineffective at tackling problems that affect most American people.

 

Why are we "extremely inefficient", though? Is it because we aren't very good at it? Is it because good practices are being overshadowed by bad ones, creating a negative net effect? Is it because for the last decade, the Republicans have tried to put so much distance between themselves and the Obama administration, to try to limit him to a single term and crush his influence, that they've practiced obstructionism and sabotaged good legislation just because it had bi-partisan support?

[overtone]

 

 

On the large scale, the American government is extremely inefficient.

The Post Office, when it was a government agency, and the VA, Social Security, and Medicare setups when they are not actively prevented by targeted interference, are more efficient than their counterparts in the private sector. Sometimes by factors of two or three.

[neutrinosalad]

 

Why are we "extremely inefficient", though? Is it because we aren't very good at it? Is it because good practices are being overshadowed by bad ones, creating a negative net effect? Is it because for the last decade, the Republicans have tried to put so much distance between themselves and the Obama administration, to try to limit him to a single term and crush his influence, that they've practiced obstructionism and sabotaged good legislation just because it had bi-partisan support?

 

The Koch brothers come to mind. Special interest groups were always going to be a problem, but now I think they have such great influence that the general public is not getting the help it needs.

 

The Post Office, when it was a government agency, and the VA, Social Security, and Medicare setups when they are not actively prevented by targeted interference, are more efficient than their counterparts in the private sector. Sometimes by factors of two or three.

 

Hmm, I should clarify. When talking about large scale government, I was talking about the heads of our 3 branches.

 

The judicial branch by design has been shielded from the changing technological landscape, but the supreme court seems to be affected by the change in culture in terms of the decisions they have made recently.

 

I was talking about the president, congress and senate when talking about large scale government. More specifically, their inability to work as a cohesive group to implement legislation that this country needs. Their decisions at the head of the country trickle down and affect the government at every scale.

 

Also, I would like to see articles that break down how the VA, social security, etc. is more efficient than private counterparts.