Canadian here, currently absolutely in shock of what's happening down south (and your president is constantly threatening to bring us in on this circus against our will -- if someone told me this would be happening a few short months ago, I would have laughed).
But honest question, since his approval rating is positive (!!!), I thought your whole founding ethos was a rebellion against complete powers of a king, yet a lot of your "freedom" people are cheering it on. How can this be explained? Is the cognitive dissonance just so massive??? Here in Canada, we HAVE a king, yet he doesn't rule us...
American here. Lived all over the country from small towns to now the largest city, lived in other countries, traveled extensively, served in the military, first in my entire extended family to graduate from college, was highly religious and conservative, now agnostic. I say all this to say that I've seen America from many different angles.
Here's my opinion: there's a rot at the very core of America, and as a result, many of us are extremely ignorant, petty, and cruel. Trying to discuss any of these issues with probably 40% of the country is utterly useless, because they've never traveled, they have no perspective on how other countries (or even other parts of this country) actually work, they have no education or sense of history to speak of, and their only source of info is blatant propaganda. They don't care what works, they have no vision for the world they want to build, they just don't want the other side to "win", even when that would be better for them. If we have to burn everything down to make sure the other side doesn't get the world they want, so be it. And they're proud of all of this.
When do kings get rebelled against? Typically when they stop listening and caring for their people. So maybe it's not rebelling against a king, I think it's rebelling against old ossified system that didn't and couldn't change anything for the better. Now a new system of ruling is finally doing something at least. A breath of fresh air for a stagnating fire. But sometimes adding fresh air to a stagnating fire will result in explosion.
But honest question, since his approval rating is positive (!!!), I thought your whole founding ethos was a rebellion against complete powers of a king, yet a lot of your "freedom" people are cheering it on. How can this be explained? Is the cognitive dissonance just so massive??? Here in Canada, we HAVE a king, yet he doesn't rule us...