Quoting sugarjoe:

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Quoting Rifter:

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..., but we also elect the national leader, the president.  Parliamentary systems typically only have one house elected by the people.  The upper house is usually appointed, and the national leader is the prime minister, the head of the coalition party in power.  As we have seen over the years in Israel, a crisis of confidence in the PM can bring down the coalition and create a national emergency.

As we have seen over the last 8 years in the USA, a president can ruin your countries reputation in the rest of the world.

Ask me if I care, Sugar. As long as the rest of the world believes they know more about the United States  than I, and believes that they have the some bizarre right to try and dictate to the united States and interfere with internal affairs which are none of their business, then i suggest the rest of the world would be very well advised to be more worried about what the United states thinks of them. And please remove the United Nations from our land, we would appreciate it very much.
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Food for thought:

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot help the small men by tearing down the big men.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.

You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do themselves.

Paraphrased form the inspired words of Abraham Lincoln

Quoting hal9g:

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You people are so blinded in your hatred, you wouldn;t recognize the truth if it smacked you in the face!

Criticizing and hating are two different things. I can see why you get so opset if you didn't realize that.

Quoting Rifter:

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There is a huge difference between a "republic" which is what the US is, and a parliamentary democracy, which is what most of the countries in Europe are.  We elect not only our representatives and senators from each state, but we also elect the national leader, the president.  Parliamentary systems typically only have one house elected by the people.  The upper house is usually appointed, and the national leader is the prime minister, the head of the coalition party in power.  As we have seen over the years in Israel, a crisis of confidence in the PM can bring down the coalition and create a national emergency.

I live in the Republic of Finland. I vote for people for my city council (just few weeks ago actually), the parliament, president and the finnish MEPs to the European Parliament.

Quoting hal9g:

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You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do themselves.

I liked that one.

Quoting hal9g:

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You are the a$$holes who started two world wars in the last century!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Technically no, the first World War was started by Austria-Hungary.

But of course you are right, WW2 was started by my generation - born 30-40 years after the war...

Quoting SH84:

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Quoting skipnet50:

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Name a single liberty that any citizen of the United States has been deprived of.

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Freedom of the press?

When has this happened?  I seem to have missed it.

Quoting skipnet50:

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And please remove the United Nations from our land, we would appreciate it very much.
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Why am I not surprised?

The loss of trust in the United States as a superpower is reinforced by its undisguised contempt for international organizations like the United Nations and for agreements like the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, as well as its relative unwillingness, as the world's biggest air polluter, to take the pressing problems of climate change seriously.

Quoting Rifter:

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Quoting lmoelleb:

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Quoting hal9g:

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And just in case you missed this in school, but the U.S is a representative democracy and we'd like to keep it that way.  Kindly keep your social democracy in Britain and Europe, thank you very much!

Yes, we where tought that the US was a representative democracy. Out of curiosity, what makes you think the European nations are not representative democracies? I admit Switzerland is a bit on the fence here, as they do lean towards direct democracy instead of representative democracy.

Please remember not to mistake the democratic choice of a polulation as undemocratic, just because they make another decission than what you would.

There is a huge difference between a "republic" which is what the US is, and a parliamentary democracy, which is what most of the countries in Europe are.  We elect not only our representatives and senators from each state, but we also elect the national leader, the president.  Parliamentary systems typically only have one house elected by the people.  The upper house is usually appointed, and the national leader is the prime minister, the head of the coalition party in power.  As we have seen over the years in Israel, a crisis of confidence in the PM can bring down the coalition and create a national emergency.

Not really. Here in Europe there some quite different systems. Let me give you "mine" as an example.

We have 4 (or 5) different elections in my representative democracy republic.

- Local elections, where we vote on 3 things: The mayor. The assembly for the municipality (something like a county, and "governed" by the mayor and his team) and the town assembly (A municipality can have several towns/cities).

- Legislature elections, where we vote on the deputies that will represent our region (called districts) on the parliament. The party that elects the biggest number of parliament members nationwide gets to suggest the name of the future prime-minister to the president. The candidates for prime-minister are, of course, previously known so that you can make an informed vote.

- Presidential Elections. No explanation needed I guess.

- European Elections, where you vote on the portuguese members for the european parliament.

If you live in one of the 2 groups of islands (Madeira and Azores) you get to have a 5th. election for regional government where you elect what would be the similar to a governor there in the US. They have their own laws but the general laws of the Republic are also applicable there, of course, as they are above local laws.

So, as you see, we elect everything. Nothing is nominated.

Just some trivia.