Reply to really jarring coming back to the US after traveling to Asia for the last three weeks

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think people are making good points on both sides of this debate.  As a 50-year old, I am somewhat depressed at where our country has been headed with respect to national infrastructure and government services, however.   I blame on part the Reagan revolution which started or accelerated the war on federal government (which Trump really super-charged by affirmatively trying to destroy basically all federal agencies), plus our American sense of independence which really seems to be spinning out of control.  The 20th century had a couple major shocks that pulled people together in a common interest — the Great Depression led to much infrastructure through the WPA and TVA, for instance, and WW2 led to the development of the interstate highway system and many bridge improvements so we could move military equipment across the country.  We just don’t seem to hand together like that anymore.  There’s no sense of shared sacrifice to create something communal.  If your schools stink, people want tax credits to send their kids to private.  People throw trash on the ground and if you ask them not to do that, you’re derided as a busybody.  People are impressed by a presidential candidate that pays no taxes and it is what every rich person and corporation aspires to.  
Then you also have things like citizens United that have basically destroyed our system of government.  Our Congress is barely functional — it takes years to get one piece of functional legislation like ACA or Infrastructure and everything grinds to a halt in the meantime.  
I’m a born of the 4th of July patriotic American who really does think this is the best country in the world  but it is all rather depressing.  It’s like we’re actively sabotaging ourselves as a country.[/quote]

9/11 was the moment where we could have turned things around.  We had the unity.

Instead, we pursued a bunch of land wars in Asia.[/quote]

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