Why the US Can't Fix Big Problems

[Labster]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...ge/576802/

Interesting article trying to diagnose why we can't seem to act on the big challenges facing the nation.

• Anti-statism combined with the assumption that the free market will take care of it.
  
• Anti-intellectualism
  
• The conceit that this Nation special and above what ails everyone else
  
• A system of government that disproportionately favors rural states
  

What do you guys think?

Or, if I may summarize further:

• Greed
  
• Sloth
  
• Pride
  
• Envy
  

Yes, that does sound like a recipe for tragedy.  Some of the problems he mentions are problems inherent with democracy, though we do a bad job of mitigating them.  But if you have people convinced that a "Flight 93 Presidency" is a better option than compromise, then yes, we are failing at the democracy thing. 

I think an honest conservative perspective would be that the government disproportionately favors urban areas.  This is a pretty classic split you see worldwide, where urban/rural splits are a proxy for inequality as a whole.

Anyway, I found this article more interesting, as it argues that the center of both liberal and conservative thought is in California, and that all of this angst comes from Conservatives who really are besieged by people who disagree with them completely.  And this was before the last election -- now only 7 of California's 53 congresscritters are Republican, as the Dems won every single seat they targeted this year in the state.  The counties containing the Reagan and Nixon Libraries are now represented entirely by Democrats at the national level.

EDIT: CA GOP seats down from 9 to 7