No kidding

Most Americans engage in magical thinking when it comes to politics and economics. Things should be a certain way and that's that.

Mostly this stems from the conviction that things should generally go their way without any great effort on their part, and the presumption that past success is due to the natural superiority of American culture. That part is probably common to most cultures around the world.

It doesn't help that the American experience after the Second World War confirms this prejudice in the minds of those that don't understand the root causes of American prosperity in that period: namely, that all the other developed economies had been ruined by the war and American industry had no real competition.

When it comes down to it, most Americans (both left and right) are quite provincial - but then again, this is the case in every society.