Reply #29: It's very different from the Soviet Union...

[MellowDem]

in all reality, you are way overblowing the situation and making it look silly with such a comparison. Our standard of living is so much higher it's not even funny. Still, I do think we are wholly idiotic when it comes to health care, drug policy, sexual education, poverty fighting, certain infrastructure projects (ie mass transit), an unwillingness to start revamping all of our power grid and infrastructure to make it much more efficient and less dependent on dirty fuels, a pretty silly media (though there are still some good things out there), and certain civil liberties (gay marriage).

The great part is this: We actually have the ability to change ALL of these things. Not every country can say that. Now we just need the political will, and unfortunately, the Repubs are a political anvil of death, and the Democrats are running the boat on a lawnmower engine.