> I think a big contributor that made this a much bigger and messier problem was allowing or enabling or not-forbidding the non-enforcement of laws.
That is something all legal systems have in common, alone because there won't ever be enough resources to enforce every little regulation, short of turning the entire country into an AI-enforced panopticon, and by that time people will vote with their feet (assuming they're still allowed to leave). Even the more autocratic/authoritarian systems all have had their share of selective enforcement - being a member of the ruling party or of the same religion/ethnicity (such as in Syria with the Alawites) will always bring its benefits.
> From policemen personally ignoring crimes and police departments issuing directives to ignore certain offenses, to prosecutors choosing which crimes to prosecute, to judges 'interpreting' laws and case law, and finally to the president who decides to pardon whomever he pleases for unknown reasons.
All of this is something we have in Europe as well. Low-level stuff that's technically illegal (say, running a red light, dropping a cigarette butt or chewing gum on the ground), police can but don't have to enforce. Actual crimes such as theft have to be enforced by the police, but DAs may choose to drop the case because of a variety of factors. And judges are literally there to interpret the law (because no law can account for the complexities of real life) and to determine if the letter and the spirit of the law are applicable to the case.
The key thing is that us Europeans generally trust our governments, whereas the US population doesn't even trust the government to the point that there is one single federal ID and drivers license card.
The federal government issues a variety of official identification such as passports and Global Entry cards. Citizens are free to use those if they like and they are accepted everywhere that matters. The federal government also has the Real ID program to ensure that state issued identification (such as driver's licenses) meets certain standards if people want to use those IDs for purposes beyond just driving.
The notion that a single federal ID card should be mandatory for everyone or that the federal government should handle driver's licenses is just stupid and reflects a total misunderstanding of how the USA is structured. We have a dual sovereignty system for good reasons and hopefully that will never change.
> The key thing is that us Europeans generally trust our governments, whereas the US population doesn't even trust the government to the point that there is one single federal ID and drivers license card.
You:
> The notion that a single federal ID card should be mandatory for everyone or that the federal government should handle driver's licenses is just stupid and reflects a total misunderstanding of how the USA is structured.
Seems to me they accurately described the reality and then you're substantiating their description...
That is something all legal systems have in common, alone because there won't ever be enough resources to enforce every little regulation, short of turning the entire country into an AI-enforced panopticon, and by that time people will vote with their feet (assuming they're still allowed to leave). Even the more autocratic/authoritarian systems all have had their share of selective enforcement - being a member of the ruling party or of the same religion/ethnicity (such as in Syria with the Alawites) will always bring its benefits.
> From policemen personally ignoring crimes and police departments issuing directives to ignore certain offenses, to prosecutors choosing which crimes to prosecute, to judges 'interpreting' laws and case law, and finally to the president who decides to pardon whomever he pleases for unknown reasons.
All of this is something we have in Europe as well. Low-level stuff that's technically illegal (say, running a red light, dropping a cigarette butt or chewing gum on the ground), police can but don't have to enforce. Actual crimes such as theft have to be enforced by the police, but DAs may choose to drop the case because of a variety of factors. And judges are literally there to interpret the law (because no law can account for the complexities of real life) and to determine if the letter and the spirit of the law are applicable to the case.
The key thing is that us Europeans generally trust our governments, whereas the US population doesn't even trust the government to the point that there is one single federal ID and drivers license card.