[mickdeek86]

America was a democracy when we built the Interstate, TVA/Grand Coulee/Hoover, Manhattan Project, space program, etc. Many of these overran budgets and schedules, but they are there to see.

A bigger problem than our democratic system is our Republican ideology, which has lost the stomach for large-scale cooperation.

[uni_rule]

Most people wouldn't mind bringing back a non-military federal job guarantee in the form of returning the WPA in some form. It won't be a particularly glorious or high paying job but I definitely believe such a program would have a place in rebuilding various pieces of infrastructure.

[windows2020]

1) America is a constitutional republic. 2) Don't blame America for a state's failure to build a train.

[addicted]

You do realize that there is no contradiction in being both a republic and a democracy right?

Your point 1) is the equivalent of you rebutting someone’s claim that their hair is black by saying that their eyes are brown.

[mickdeek86]

Ah, that tired old cliche. Basically every country on the planet is a "republic" (See People's Republic of China/etc, Islamic Republic of Iran, et al) and has a constitution. Your statement could be rephrased "America is a country". Turns out adjectives matter.

In any case, it doesn't really effect my first point, because whatever America's system of government is today, it's the same one as it was before.

To the actual point, all of these great projects for which we will be remembered by 25th century historians, ran over budget and over schedule, and we had people talk sh*t about them, and they got built anyway. Who remembers the naysayers (today it happens to be the Reagan/Trump Republicans, yesterday it was 'Whitey's on the moon')? Nobody. They are not memorable.

That said, as is always pointed out on HN, high-speed passenger rail doesn't make a lot of sense for this country at this point in time, it's a high-hanging fruit without that much juice. Better places to spend our billions.

[dragonwriter]

> Basically every country on the planet is a "republic"

Not true, there are quite a few monarchies.

[mickdeek86]

Fair enough but it doesn't make the phrase "constitutional republic" any less meaningless in the context it was offered (saying America is not 'a democracy'), does it? Incidentally, aren't most of those monarchies constitutional (ie ceremonial) in which the public elect the actual government, thus in practice democratic?

[dragonwriter]

Yes, many (constitutional) monarchies are also (representative) democracies, just like some republics are.