Sure, I've considered that too. That's the missing context British people have when opining about the American way of doing politics: that it's keeping a lid o

Sure, I've considered that too. That's the missing context British people have when opining about the American way of doing politics: that it's keeping a lid on something that here we do not have. However I think it's more than that. The places that have the most european sense of humor and way of live are those with the highest population density. New York / Boston humour is quite close. Yet, NY -- the most dense US city -- is still only have as dense as paris. The US is incredibly sparse. Everything is very far away from everything else even within cities: a shop is a drive from another shop. I suspect that does something peculiar to public spaces. The recent civil war and racism doesn't help though.