In theory, the United States is a republic. The purpose of a republic is to avoid being a democracy--which has never survived long--by ensuring that people cannot vote themselves entitlements from self-serving politicians. However, once people realized they could vote in politicians that would promise bread and circuses, the game was over and democracy won. Instead of minarchist form of government, the US now has tyranny of democracy. The video below shows some simple, practical implications of this behavior.
In summary, most Americans want government to clean up their fiscal house--as long as it doesn't affect them personally. Anyone capable of 2nd grade math can easily see that Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, and defense spending are the only areas where MAJOR cuts can be implemented to even possibly put the fiscal house in order. However, most of the people polled, notably "conservatives" (if only they actually were), were not interested in actually cutting any of those programs.
Indeed, the lesson is clear. There will be no end to bread and circuses until the system implodes. This is not a uniquely American problem by any stretch of the imagination--the whole of the western world is cratering under a debt load because of the simple fact that people are self-serving first and foremost. There's not much else that you need to know about people--they protect themselves first. Politicians work to get re-elected, voters work to keep bread and circuses. The world is quite simple.
Aside from Joe Kernan's ridiculous attempt to defend Republicans as fiscal conservatives while the data shows that that's more idealistic than realistic, it's quite interesting. Now you know why we take our particular stance in so many matters.
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