The Mean Streak in American Thinking

explains why reforms like health care haven't come to pass.

Credit years of GOP propaganda for that mentality. The country won't reverse course overnight.

Some put the divergence down to the ideological rigidity that led Puritans and others to flee to America in the first place; others to the ruthless struggle for survival that marked the early settlement years and the conquest of the West. Still others see it as the price the US pays for its material success. What it means, though, is that if and when Obama gets some form of health reform through, it will reflect America's fears quite as much as its promise. And it is unlikely to be a national service that looks anything like ours.

I don't see any meaningful reform coming out of Congress because our politicians are so much on the take from corporate interests.