UHHMERRICAAAAA **** yeah!!! Wait.... is OP implying the good ol US of A is flawed in its current state...? He must be a yourapian
Russia is allowing people to arm themselves for self defense now. I think it's just breach loaded weapons though. They need permits and whatnot. Fighting communism was necessary. At certain times the USSR was the more powerful and globally influential of the two super powers. With the US being more or less the underdog. If we would not have went heads up with the USSR one could only imagine what the world would look like today. Unless you are familiar with living in a soviet controlled communist nation. Make no mistake. They were a enemy. With overt actions globally and covert actions in the US. From activist groups to whatever. There was no real choice in fighting the Cold War. Tactics used are debatable. With successes and huge failures. It was a win at all cost situation. For every atrocity claimed to be committed by the US, the USSR had done equal or worse. They wanted political, economical and military domination across the globe. That was and still is the game being played unfortunately. As for as the ideological and philosophical differences, at the time we could ill afford that fight on the home front. As we could be seen as losing that battle abroad. If not for the brutality of the USSR upon it subjected people. In the 60's and 70's a lot of the anti-war movements were underlined with Marxism and communism. What we see today is those activist coming into power. Stuck in that ideological fight as narrow minded as those before them. The counter culture was Marxist. Of course no one knows what would have happened if we didn't face off with the USSR, but you can judge by there own history and actions how that could have tuned out.
OP please look up the term "iconoclast." The natural progression is to see iconoclastic movements occur ever so often. Furthermore, looking at the significant iconoclastic events in history most did not occur in the US. Any country built based off the concept of free rights is going to see a positive and negative. Simple because people have the right to have an opinion. As long as the negatives do not cause actual harm the rights will remain. The media is a terrible source of information. It will also have an ulterior motive and often be completely bias. Besides people only hear what they are willing to hear. Society likes to here the worlds drama whether depicted truthfully or false.
There was actually a report done into the USA politics, google "is America a democracy" and look for scholarly articles