Are you seriously going to try to make either of these arguments? a. Your original point suggested that continuous dysfunction is the reason that the U.S. is s

Are you seriously going to try to make either of these arguments? a. Your original point suggested that continuous dysfunction is the reason that the U.S. is successful. Not only is this nonsensical, it is ahistorical. Yes, the U.S. has had periods of hyper-partisanship prior to the last fifteen years. The most serious of these resulted in a war. However, over most of the last 224 years, the U.S. has had more periods of cooperation and compromise than hyper-partisanship and dysfunction. Even during the 1930s (where there a plot to stage a coup d'état, defeated only because the plotters misjudged their preferred candidate) and the 1950s (e.g., McCarthy) the business of government moved forward and there were measurable improvements in the quality of life and infrastructure directly attributable to government intervention. (See also the TVA.) b. Your assessment is flat-out incorrect on numerous levels. Again, it assumes facts that are not only not in evidence, but contrary to the facts that actually exist. This is a common problem with choosing to believe ideological stances rather than comparing them against facts. Under no circumstances do I think that all government programs are successful; however, the U.S. saw greater real economic growth during times of higher government spending on infrastructure programs and social programs (as I indicated) than it has when these things fall to the best “interests” of the monied classes and so-called “Christian charity”. I don’t know what your particular political stance is, but your characterization of the charitable nature of Europeans is misguided, at best—a lot of the higher “charitable” donation rates in the U.S. are because (1) the government funds aren’t there to assist those in need, (2) there are greater tax incentives to donate more. I put “charitable” in quotes because all donations to churches—for any reason whatsoever—are considered tax deductible in the U.S. Most of those donations are not used for local charitable assistance (e.g., soup kitchens, etc.) activities; they are used for church building maintenance, salaries, mission work, etc. I suspect (because I don’t know where to find the actual numbers for this) that if you were to measure per-capita charitable assistance spending through charitable donations, it would be similar. I also don't happen to think that the success of a nation should be measured on how financially charitable its people are to those less fortunate members of society—I think it should be measured on how few of its people have what is now termed food insecurity. If that can be done with charitable donations, great—but as the U.S. amply demonstrates, it cannot and never could.