How do foreigners view US politics? - Page 13

What obama inherited was not bushes economic policy but his foreign policy and guess what....war is expensive.

On November 04 2010 10:40 Savio wrote:
I remember while spending some time in Ecuador during the Iraq war, someone once asked me if I was worried that the Iraqis would bomb my home. I was shocked that they were so uninformed about reality and I realized that they had been hearing crazy stuff on the news.

On November 04 2010 10:48 methematics wrote:
im not sure what u mean by holy crusade to end socialsim. . . we didnt want communism in america during the cold war, and we didnt want (much) government control after the revolution. where is that wrong?

also the "crusade" isnt over (if it ever existed, agian i dont understand your post) we have elections to try to inforce/deter socialism at home. as far as the rest of the world is concerned, countries conquer countries and we are not in a position to be conquered by any (socialist) country. so if France wants socialism fine, they pose no threat to us (at least not like the ussr). Thus we dont seek to enforce free markets around the world because we are secure now? if i understood your post i could respond better the "this" i am allegedly believing.

Lol. Do you really believe "this"?- romantic

On November 04 2010 10:45 Xtar wrote:


I thought the exact financial markets that started the credit crunch were those that were deregulated under Bush. Like separating normal banks from investment banks and deregulating investment banks completely to the point they weren't even legally banks anymore.

On November 04 2010 10:22 darmousseh wrote:
I seriously don't understand why most nations are so liberal. I would have thought they would have learned the lesson by now that government isn't good at anything except taking your money, regulating your life and getting rich. Seriously.

United states does have something unique though, it is the largest democracy in the world and as such it is significantly harder to manage than a smaller nation like the UK. Conditions and environments are so diverse across the united states because of ethnicity (i'm half middle eastern), location, and economics. To try to set a standard is almost impossible. I might be an advocate for small federal government, but i believe that individual states and cities should be able to regulate themselves freely to attract people or businesses. If one state has high taxes, then people will leave to another state.

As far as the moral issues in the united states, politicians can't do anything anyway. Most of the major moral decisions have been made by the supreme court. The only thing the legislative branch can do is force the issue. Judicial opinion changes over time depending on the overall feeling of the nation, but in general it is a slow process. Many americans themselves simply don't care about politics to even understand the issues. About 80% of them (which was the percentage in california that voted against a 0.1% tax increase on cars to pay for parks just 2 days ago) just say "don't increase my taxes and you have my vote".

The best way for foreigners to think about the united states is imagine if the EU decided to have a government that had the power to override the individual nations. Each nation would be looking out for its own best interest and there would be tons of ethical conflicts everywhere. That is basically the united states in a nutshell.

On November 04 2010 10:53 Romantic wrote:

Oh, ok. What is the biggest threat to America now if not socialism?

On November 04 2010 08:50 Scruffy wrote:


Well, you aren't from America, which is a predominantly Christian country, so you wouldn't understand. IE. its very offensive to most of us what he said.

Edit: Even if you aren't religious, its pretty bad to hate your own country.

On November 04 2010 10:36 methematics wrote:
socialism/fascism/communism

On November 04 2010 10:55 Monsen wrote:


The communists are coming to take away your gun and or bible ! They're probably already hiding under your bed. You're fucked, dude.

On November 04 2010 09:03 domovoi wrote:

Actually, I find it interesting so many Europeans in this thread have mentioned abortion. The last time the federal government made a big deal about it was in 2003, when they banned partial-birth abortion (it wasn't even controversial). IIRC, a lot European countries don't even allow abortions at the third trimester.

Abortion is one of those non-issues that get some Americans riled up for uniquely American reasons. I think it has a lot to do with the political climate of the 60s and 70s, when you had a lot of feminists taking it up as their cause, and naturally pushback from those who viewed the counter-culture movement with disguest. Then when the Supreme Court issued Roe v. Wade, naturally a lot of people felt it was an illegitimate, non-democratic decision. A lot of those feelings have carried over 30 years later, though much of it is dissipated.

On November 04 2010 10:57 Romantic wrote:

We ANNIHILATED!!! Communism.

On November 04 2010 10:54 darmousseh wrote:

When banks can decide how to invest, they will make the best investments out of their own interest for capital..

On November 04 2010 11:00 Monsen wrote:


No you didn't. I hear your current president is a african muslim communist. Believe me- there's no hope for you.

On November 04 2010 11:01 Xtar wrote:
Darmousseh, you can add another item to the list. Foreigners think US politics is crazy for rejecting that deregulation helped cause the financial crisis. Here outside of the US we have these regulations in place exactly to prevent the scams and stuff they pulled. It wasn't just the low interest rate, which is silly in itself. But the whole idea of sub-prime mortgage securitization was basically fraud.

You either have to have a system where this can't happen in principle or you need to put regulations in place. And as long as US politicians won't accept this, the US will eventually create a new crisis that will damage the rest of the world.