You don’t seem to realize that many people don’t vote. Either school/work/whatever prevents them, or they’re just lazy, or they don’t know who to vote for, or they cast protest votes instead, or …
Bush winning does not mean he’s liked by a majority. It means he’s liked by a majority of people who voted.
As for the weapons issue, again, the problem largely comes from the history of our country. Regardless of whether it works elsewhere, we A) have it in our Constitution, so people would riot like hell if we tried to fix it, and B) have many parts big on hunting/self defense/etc. Some of us may not like them, but we ain’t gonna change enough minds to fix it.
Also, I like how you complain about our stereotypes of Swedes in TV and then start stereotyping Americans based on TV.
Finally, on the police brutality thing. You have a point, but it’s irrelevant. Most entertainment forms are about things we don’t condone. Do you really think a majority of GTA players want to go around shooting cops and running over hookers? You mention Lost–well, that show has a hell of a lot of violence and strife as well. “Oh, but those are fictional”, you might say.
So? Look at the news. Would you really want to read it if every article was “plane lands safely at JFK Airport”, “dog crosses street safely”, “man pulled over for reckless driving, ticketed and released”, “street light functions properly”…?
Unless something goes wrong (or really well), people don’t care. No one would watch a police show if eventful things didn’t happen. Again, it does not mean we glorify police brutality or plane crashes or dogs dying or car accidents–it just means that it’s more interesting to watch/read about than things going smoothly.
