...it's possible we'd see a world where the majority of US citizens vote to repeal the second amendment,
The people will never get a chance to vote on the amendment. You need overwhelming majorities in both houses to bring an amendment forward. Even after that, you need an overwhelming number of state legislatures to approve. With our divided society, that ain't happening, ever. A gun ban would never fly in any case. Guns have been part of the American psychology since day 1. They are part of the hunting culture. Part of the wild west, frontier mentality. A ban on assault rifles and gun restrictions is more feasible, but not an amendment because of the reasons already stated.
Given a choice to vote on gun restrictions, Americans would approve, according to the latest Gallup Poll.
Is the U.S. in a decline, socially, culturally, and economically? Possibly. Donald Trump's popularity may be a symptom. If we look at the rise of extremist leaders in the past (i.e., Mussolini, Hitler), these gained popular support during times of profound national stress.
As for the rest of your laundry list of our ills--be skeptical of what you see in media. Remember that news is filtered by the news reporter. We are a divided society in many ways. One way is our quality of life. I drive around, for miles, and see no drug addicts. See no poverty. Yet, if I wanted to, I could find a neighborhood not far away where these are common. Is this not true of the UK?
Homelessness, on the other hand, visits all communities. This is a conspicuous symptom of social and economic distress that seeps through everywhere, it seems. The homeless are not only among us. Increasingly, they are becoming us.
Well, no argument from me, @mobbs. Just more thoughts.
Yeah I think restriction, even a non-trivial percentage of republicans would agree is a good compromise. But weirdly it seems a majority of voters don't get representation in this regard? I guess the system of a Republic works a little differently.
Oh I am, all the time. Bringing the drug documentary in was not to imply that it was the case in all of the states - far from it. But the reason it exists in the first place is one that really has no excuse, and I actually think we're publicly lead to believe it's less of a problem than it really is.
The fentanyl crisis is exactly that, a crisis which has rapidly skyrocketed, with a 26% increase of deaths by overdose from this one specific drug from the year before - close to 70,000 completely avoidable deaths of young, otherwise healthy adults. This kind of level is uniquely American, and 4-5x worse than the UK (which even so is already a major problem). We don't really have entire neighbourhoods left to OD at their own discretion, at least not when I was last there XD.
That's a thought provoking image... I find it strange in a country like the US where housing is so cheap, could be even cheaper, and arable land is more plentiful than pretty much anywhere on Earth. Eesh
14 Republicans out of 435 members of the House of Representatives voted for some form of gun control last year. House of Reps is split almost evenly with a slight Republican majority.
15 Republican senators out of 100 senators voted for some form of gun control last year. Senate is split pretty closely. with the slimmest Democratic majority.
I think Republican support for gun control is rather trivial in the U.S.
facepalm
Though I wonder, do you reckon it's a little murkier than just good vs evil here, and that the legislation is just poorly written or overly broad, or allows some kind of constitutional breach, yadda yadda?
Are both sides just playing wrong to stay in power by satisfying voters in barely symbolic ways while getting big paychecks under the table? These things are weirdly legal in the US so it should be available knowledge lol
Politics is dirty. In order to get to the level where one is in the House or the Senate, so many deals have to be made, that virtually everyone is compromised by the time they get there. It's not the politicians who are at fault, but the people who elect them. I am so discouraged by my fellow citizens. Does anyone study history? Does anyone know anything about civic?
I taught history and government (which is sort of civics). I'm not sure these are even required courses anymore.
But what do we do? Give up? Stop voting? Stop caring? We choose the best horse we can in each race and hold our noses. Is it very different in the UK, or does everyone have to compromise to get to a serious post?
I think the politics in the UK is pretty broken but in very different ways. There's a lot more backstabbing and sycophancy, as each pathetic party and leader bends with the wind without a single conviction to speak of in order to stay in power. Right wing parties can and do float far left if they think it'll give them a few more months without being fired or elected out, and vice versa. It's all about immediate short-term gains, while throwing the long term under the bus.
Compromise is one thing, but this is on another level.
Coalitions are also very likely meaning a third small party gets an exaggerated influence whether or not it lines up ideologically with the main party or any of the citizens. Another kind of compromise that just doesn't work very well usually, and encourages short term vision.
So now, we're all enjoying the long term consequences of that, which is crippling for everyone in all regards.
I suppose this is fairly similar across European democracies but the main difference is that the UK's literally has no idea what they're doing since Brexit left them without Brussels to do everything for them lol.
But yeah, I guess it's hard to compare with US politics, despite how the UK seems to want to become a mini shadow of the US in every regard
Yup, you are right about politicians being compromised, including republicans. I say that as a GOP voter. Nearly all politicians are compromised regardless of the party, which if you ask me is why things are so polarized in America right now.