Generally used to describe the
United States of America, since just saying "America" is shorter. If I lived in Brazil, I'd classify myself as Brazilian, not American.
A country frequently bashed by pseudointellectuals who condemn the average American 13-year old for not knowing the exact
political climate of Romania, because of course their country is an intellectual utopia. Run by George W. Bush, whose approval rate is 20-something percent. In the 2000 election, the Supreme Court ruled that vote counting be stopped while GWB was ahead, although it was obvious that Gore had more votes. In 2004, faulty voting machines made by Diebold, a company in the Bush family's pocket, took over the counting. Even with Kerry votes counting backwards, not counting at all, counting as Bush votes, the machines being easier to hack in to than a matchbox, Bush won by 2%.
America is currently suffering from one-party government; all three branches have a majority of conservative Republicans. The Supreme Court is packed with conservative idiots who just won't die. The
political climate is one of extremism; one can be either a gunslinging Republican shithead or a
conspiracy theorist Democrat shithead.
The Bush administration is botching the job quite noticably. Financially America is in deep debt to China and other countries, a war in Iraq was started on false pretenses, we are fucking up the environment beyond belief with our idiotic energy policies and the education system is absolute shit.
While the typical picture an
outsider would have of an American is an obese moron who bathes his $200,000 Hummervalance (-50 miles to the gallon!) in champagne and thinks that Iraq is somewhere around New Zealand, this is not true. There are plenty of extremist American idiots. However, they're the only ones that get the news coverage. There are idiots outside of America. Plenty of Americans are level-headed,
intelligent people who aren't religious
fundamentalists with four shotguns a person and a Colt for the cat.
The American media is one-sided, one-dimensional, and devotes huge amounts of time to pointless stories. Rarely is anything outside of OHMYGODTHISCANKILLYOU...More at 12:30, only on FOX. The outside world is rarely portrayed, so most Americans who have to hold down three jobs and get 4 hours of sleep and consequently don't have the time to search through every international news station's website have no access to the big picture.
America may change for the better in 2008; however, if the choice is a hot turd sandwich or a cold turd sandwich, you can't really blame them for doing the best they can.