Maybe I should further explain. Every country engages in cultures and practices that people from other countries disapprove of. It's cultural differences. But you have to admit that in the US, we tend to have that inferiority complex that keeps us from feeling ashamed when our way of life is criticized. In fact, we often become emboldened to keep doing it to spite other people.
I'd say I'm guilty of this. I truly believe that the US still holds outdated ideals that have been completely wiped out from most other industrialized countries, like the death penalty for instance. Or the fact that a nationalized healthcare system is still viewed with such fear in America, when it has been implemented successfully in the rest of the first world. I mean, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is weak sauce, it does nothing but hand over millions of new customers to the insurance industry, and the tea party acts like we're the Soviet Union now. Give me a break.
Ok, ok, I'm getting off topic. My point is that while I recognize our shortcomings, it just pisses me off when Europeans try to bring them up. Their clucking disapproval is just so smug and insincere. Like deep down, they're so happy that they can still feel superior to us.
Or when they try to convince me that things are so much more "evolved" in Europe. Sorry, but sitting around at a cozy brasserie on your two week vacation with your copy of Rousseau doesn't make your entire continent more evolved. Racism still exists there and it's a huge problem. I couldn't believe it when the French government tried to ban Hijabs in the name of liberalism, like they were trying to rescue Muslim women from oppression. No, it was a thinly veiled attempt to protect french tradition and culture, which many think Muslim immigrants are threatening to dismantle. I just hate the hypocrisy.
Sorry for the rant folks, I know I went way off topic. I guess the overall point is that inefficiency in the democratic process exists everywhere, so one should not be so quick to label our elections as a sideshow based on the sheer spectacle of them. Elections still matter here.
Just for the record, I have nothing gainst the American electoral proces and I dont view it as inferior, just inefficient in a purely cost/benefit sense. I was merely surprised to see it mentioned as something to be proud of as opposed to viewing in a neutral way.
