[Jtsummers]

> A reminder that government services suck on purpose. There is no reason for government healthcare to be ineffective other than the malicious intent of those who run our government (D or R).

Yes. Government employees and elected officials have weekly meetings with a standing question: Where are we doing things well? And then they coordinate to fuck it up and make it suck. /s

[vladTheInhaler]

To elaborate a bit on what another commenter said, the Republican party's whole premise is that government is bad, and we should have less of it. Since they are the government, it is easy to obstruct and oppose any attempt to actually help people. Essentially, the worse a job they do running the country, the more compelling their platform becomes. So yes, I really do think some Republicans are worried that the government might do too good of a job.

[chefkoch]

Some republicans, yes.

[VelkaMorava]

I have been reading comments like yours on the internet for quite a while now. I am from Europe, so I have no horse in this race.

I have these 2 questions/thoughts:

1) Do you think it's a good idea to have all the branches of the government controlled by 1 party? We actually had this a few decades ago in the Czech republic and we refer to that period as "totalita" or dictatorship. Let's say the wet dream (based on comments like yourself) of all Democrats becomes real and they control everything from communal level to presidency. How is it different than China, USSR or Czechoslovak Socialist Republic?

2) What has changed in the past half a year? If I am not mistaken, Democrats have had control of the presidency and house for over half a year now. I admit HN is my only source of news, but it seems like there are still ICE camps. There is still half-built wall between US and Mexico. The US still drones countries on the other side of the world. From the statistics people are still living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford healthcare (I understand the plague has its fair share here too). The US still helps Israel, which is IMO a rogue state at this point, as per the Pegasus scandal.

[GcVmvNhBsU]

1) China, USSR, etc had/have more government involvement in running business but also controlling people’s movement and freedom of expression. That’s a different situation than American politics, because even the most progressive democrats don’t necessarily want the government limiting people’s freedoms so much as forcing rich entities to pay higher taxes and to provide more socialized services.

1b) We don’t really need 1 party. More than 2 parties would be great as well. But really we just need the Republican party to not be obstructionist nor actively harmful to democracy.

2) Democrats have the presidency, which, while having greatly expanded powers over the last 50ish years, is still a relatively weak executive. The Democrats have a narrow majority in the House and Senate; due to parliamentary rules, the narrow majority that they have does not allow them to pass or amend laws as freely as you may think. The Supreme Court, while notionally non-partisan, is filled with a majority of conservative Justices which can dissuade or reverse policy made by more liberal branches of the government (federally, or at state levels).

2b) 6 months is not a long time for governments the size of the US. Barrack Obama likened it to a large ocean-liner: there’s a lot of built up momentum, so it takes a long time to stop it or change direction.