The ROOT problem is that Americans have been spoiled and expect too much.
America became a GREAT nation without having a coddled, subsidized “class” of people who could buy homes, new cars and big-screen TVs while working a 40-hour-per-week schedule.
This politically correct worship of the sacred “middle class” — something we did very well without until after WWII — has to end. The gravy train is over!
Your post is a breath of fresh air for me. It is generally impossible to say on this forum that the problem lies in the culture rather than politics and, to that extent, the enemy is we ourselves --- a narcissistic society addicted to instant gratification when the world is least predisposed to grant that satisfaction. Most people seem unaware that politics follows culture, not conversely. When teh culture is narcissistic, we get a 60-something, grey-haired Jay Leno telling infantile jokes
and infantile politicians such as the "conservative" governor of South Caroline who just can't keep his pee-pee in his trousers. The point is that politicians are drawn from the same pool of humanity, and we cannot expect them to be much better than we ourselves.
Thank you for putting things in better perspective.