The average American's view of government

[liberalmediaaddict]

Since 2016 I've been struggling to figure out exactly what the American people want from our federal government.
Considering how voters bounce back and forth between electing Democrats and Republicans every 2 to 4 years it's obvious most aren't satisfied with our existing power structure in Washington D.C and want to change it. So what exactly does "change" mean to them?

My view is that while most Americans say they don't want the goverment involved in their lives and hate paying taxes, the reality is quite different. Simply put many Americans expect the government to fix every problem in the country (and the world), but don't want to pay for it or even bother to show up to vote every November to suppor it. They instead consistenlty blame the federal government for not fixing the economy, eliminating crime, protecting the border and ending all wars across the globe. And when one party doesn't do that they immediately switch sides or just don't vote. But the one constant is they still keep complaining...

The Biden term has proven that. In 2020 81 million people turned out to vote an unpopular and incompetent incumbent president out of office mainly because he'd destroyed the economy and mishandled the pandemic. Then impatient and mentally traumatized Americans gave President Biden 6 months to turn everything around and reverse Trump's mistakes, but when he didn't... they turned on him and immediately decided they wanted Republicans back in power. 4 years later they decided they wanted to go back to Trump. And when Trump doesn't fix everything they'll decide they want Democrats back in power. Round and round we go.

The difference is now yo-yo'ing back and forth between the 2 parties isn't going to be as easy. Republicans now control the Presidency, congress and the Supreme Court and people who think they're not going to do everything they can to hold on to that power are in for a rude awakening. The true test is going to be a year from now when Trump and his MAGA gang fail to deliver on all their promises and life isn't filled with puppies and rainbows. If average Americans blame the party in power that's one thing. But if they blame Democrats for the fact Republicans can't govern and have horrible policies, we'll officially become a full blown autocracy.

These authoritarian forces have already beaten down the spirit a lot of good people and convinced them their vote doesn't matter. If that trend continues our country is going to become unrecognizable except to younger people who have grown up in the "MAGA era" and know nothing else. People might claim to hate government and that democracy doesn't work... but they'll miss it when it's gone...

[SWBTATTReg]

1. And just wait...as soon as Americans see the 'iight' and 'truth' of reality on the ground after the first of the idiot's

executive orders and other nonsense get acted upon, then Americans will start their griping and moaning, and then some will be jailed. Just like some of tRUMP's candidates have stated what they'll do w/ protests and the such that will occur. The more that they throw in jail, the more protests that will occur. The back and forth will continue until some breaking point will occur (I hope not, that cooler heads on the tRUMP side prevail (but I kind of doubt it, after all, tRUMP wants people to get shot)).

[CousinIT]

2. American voters are profoundly stupid

and getting stupider thanks to propaganda and the lack of a truth-telling unbiased media plus the defunding of our public education system.

[liberalmediaaddict]

4. And the people most impacted don't even vote

I hear so many people say both parties are exactly the same, we're screwed no matter who wins and that they never vote.

Meanwhile Democrats have been fighting non-stop to help the 98% of this country who aren't billionaires and strengthen our allies around the world. The idea that both parties are the same is ridiculous.

[Fish700]

3. "Simply put many Americans expect the government to fix every problem in the country (and the world), but don't want to

pay for it." You said it all right here.

[Yavin4]

5. I'll try to explain.

Since the 80s, the federal government's spending on public investments on core programs like education, healthcare, housing, and transportation has been restrained due to tax cuts and annual deficits. Meanwhile the costs of these items has risen faster than inflation and much faster than wages putting a squeeze on the average American. The American standard of living for an independent adult is unobtainable esp. for most young people. So most Americans are under constant economic anxiety. One bad break and they're broke and in debt.

While this has been happening, our news media has become captive to a few billionaires. Instead of talking about policies around public investments, our media focuses on cultural and racial conflicts because those topics get ratings. Trump seeing this turned the volume up to 11. His entire campaign has been about stoking racial and xenophobic anxiety using immigrants as the cause for the economic anxiety as described above.

Moreover, the same corporate media tells them over and over again that any massive public investments by the government will go to non-White people and not them. This is why so many of them believe that Obamacare was for Black people only. So, reflexively, the American people vote for politicians who slash public investments in order to give tax cuts to the rich.

[leftstreet]

6. +1

[Skittles]

7. Dems have to waste a lot of time cleaning up repuke mess

that's part of the problem right there