[quote=@mdk]
<Snipped quote by POOHEAD189>

The biggest difference between the 90s and today, with respect to government, is that you've got seventeen extra years of experience under your belt now. For instance, did you know that Clinton's first term was every single bit as chaotic as Trump's? Possibly even more so? I mean maybe you've looked that up or read about it somewhere but.... was that the impression you had, back then? Not me, I was in grade school. The concept of a late-appointed chief undersecretary of the labor department swearing in was invisible to me, as I imagine it was to most people my age and younger. 

TL:DR they weren't better back then, you were just littler.
[/quote]
I have to disagree. I have looked up the clinton white house. I am a history major, though granted my forte is medieval history. But still, and I have to say the country is far more polarized now, and I would argue that most of Trump's term in office is more chaotic, except for the infamous clinton-cheating scandal. But yeah I know about the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory bombing and the like. I'm not saying the clinton administration was perfect, and didn't have people against it. Every presidency does, but the term U.S. government, in both culture and popculture, used to be synonymous with competence, and even a superstitious aw, and now (to many people at least) it's viewed mostly with "I wonder what happened this week."

[quote=@Penny]
<Snipped quote by POOHEAD189>

It is easy to underestimate the cultural power that the United States has. It still sets the trends world wide in art and culture, certainly in popular culture.

It is interesting how people here view the Government as both omnicompetent enough to run massive conspiracies and yet too incompetent to handle its own basic functions.
[/quote]
My thoughts exactly. Ever since the 1890s, and perhaps even before, it was a powerhouse on the world stage, and particularly after WW2. But there's just so many clashes today, and the internet and bias media, left and right, to perpetuate it further.