The President for whom I Voted: Destroying our Unusualness?

In his 1999 book "America the Unusual" John Kingdon states that no American party has successfully advocated for socialist principles, and he specifically mentions the Democratic Party as not being socialist. Particularly, he says, "no viable American party has advocated state ownership and control of economic production, close state regulation of the economy, or a really thoroughgoing welfare state that is financed, owned, and operated by the government" (p.72).

In reading this book, I have become convinced that in comparison with other Western countries, America is unusual in her political culture (largely individualistic and demanding of equal opportunity) and political institutions (strong separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism). In a nutshell, the main of America is far to the RIGHT of the main of otherwise similar Western nations. When I arrived at the above-quoted passage, I realized that things might have changed a great deal since Kingdon typed those words on Microsoft Word 98: state ownership and control of economic production is now no shock to hear about on the news, close state regulation of the economy seems like all we ever talk about anymore, and our welfare state (of which I partake) is becoming more thoroughgoing all the time. 

I'm not necessarily saying that these things are evil, bad, or wrong. However, it seems apparent to me that America is losing some of her unusualness. If we can assume together that our unusualness is a good thing, then it is being eroded to our detriment. Unusual? Unique? Well, at least we used to be.