why did it take Americans 6 years to wake up?
453478
The voting system needs to be changed, But you notice they won't do that because it is a matter of control and they want to control the out come no matter what!! Look at the money Bush Bag had this needs to change. It should not be that you can buy the people!! There is still a lot of peopl that need to wake up and look at the truth that Bush and everyone with him needs to go. This country is in the worst shape it has ever been in and these dummies still back him. What is wrong with people, NOTHING THIS BUSH BAG HAS DONE IS ANY GOOD FOR ANYONE EXCEPT CORP AMERICA AND THE RICH, they are the only ones who benifit from this AS* being in office!!!
835551
That's the case since 9/11. It was already taking long now it is longer because of all the necessary recently added security layers to go through. Just keep waiting, renewing and enjoy one of the best places to live on this side of life. It is worth the effort, believe me. When discouraged think about your descendants that will benefit of your patience and endurance. The people that gave you harsh and rude answers do not realize that one day someone in the past of their family tree thought about them when trying to get settled in this land of the brave and the free
297186
Because all the rest were better.\n4500 Americans dead.  An economic recovery that took six years (and is still pretty pathetic).  A Dow average that has hovered at the same place since he took office.  A leader that is a laughingstock among other nations leaders.  A country that once stood for justice now invading other nations on falsified information, et cetera...\n(The fact that I'm having difficulty posting this response proves that this is the question that broke Yahoo! Answers)
1023019
I think it takes 5 years, sometimes 3. It depends on how you got your green card.
958103
Some people loved to be controlled, so they don't have to produce a thought of there own. But many new people are waking up ,and if they awake the sleeping giant, they will all go down. I long for that day. It's the only hope we have.
413970
It is because(as I stated long ago and many times), the education system in the U.S. has desenagrated tremendously in the past 20 plus years. This due to very poorly trained individuials who have headed up our Government Educational offices in Washington and on down to the lowest levels. There is no turning around.. I also (Am an American) have difficulty understanding the language (very very poor language) AND even the writing of yanks.
140038
A good book to read about this is Sleep Thieves by Stanley Coren. He tells a few stories of people who tried to sustain wakefulness. \n\nOne famous case is the disc jockey Peter Tripp who in 1959 stayed up for more than eight days as a promotional stunt. After a few days, he began to hallucinate, seeing kittens, mice, and cobwebs. He also became paranoid, insisting that an electrician had dropped a hot electrode into his shoe. \n\nIn 1964 high school student Randy Gardner (17) attempted to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest time awake -- 260 hours. And after 11 days without sleep he suffered no hallucinations or paranoia and no psychotic symptoms. But Coren challenges this often repeated fact in his book. Coren describes the day-by-day impact on Randy, as documented by John Ross of the US Navy Medical europsychiatric Research Unit in San Diego. Randy had trouble focusing his eyes on day 2, hallucinations on day 4, and slurred speech and a short attention span by the last day. \n\nCertainly there are drugs such as caffeine, cocaine and amphetamines that keep you awake, but these cannot sustain you for very long.
530164
I do not know a lot about americans, but my brother who stayed for about 3-4 years observed a lot about them and made some very good observations. I would like to share the same with you. \nOne of the things that makes them ignorant is they are geographically isolated with most parts of the world. They are not in the tension or sensitive areas of the world like the Middle East or even the South Asia. So it is very difficult for them to comprehend the real issues. Their politicians are constantly messing up the things the world around by poking their nose where it is not required and the general public has to suffer the consequences. \nAt the same time their economy has managed to be so vibrant and sustaining that it has almost become a practice for it to ignore others and continue in its brash ways. So many cultures and nationalities have assimilated in the american culture that they think they have seen it all. Whereas, the world thinks they have a lot to learn and open up as well. \nBut they cannot continue in this path for long, because countries like India & China (which right now in a vast way dependant on US) can change the course of future. Americans have to be aware, already so many of their jobs are moving places. Its going to change. Its only a matter of time. They have to change whether its willingly or unwillingly. They cannot be ignorant in the world economy.
630629
Everytime there is a disaster, America and Americans are there in force. To name them would take too long.
24311
Have you been here and lived here 7 years yet? \nOrder to get US citizenship you have to live in US for 7 years...\nBefore it was 5 years... After 911 they made it 7 years :-(\n\nHappy New Year,\n\nJohn
423843
At least 7. A lot of other people don't seem to be getting enough sleep after reading some of these answers.
702179
Because the past already happend and the future holds endless possibilities. The present is depressing to most people. \n\nBut I do agree with you. America is worrying about the war (about four years too late when there's nothing we can really DO) and not about things it can actually change like the education system or global warming or ANYTHING.
875091
I don't think they woke up.  I think they just wanted change.  They were too apathetic to notice the incompetence.   I think the one issue that killed the Republicans was Bush and Congress both showed no fiscal restraint.  There are so many "vengeance is mine!" mean-spirited Republicans that the war alone was not enough to defeat them.
495135
Because back in the old days people would sometimes "pass out" and as a result be buried alive. When they realized that people were being buried alive they started waiting three days to see if the person was really dead of if they would "wake" up
308031
Isn't it obvious?\n\nAll it took was one century of prosperity in the homeland. The population has become so soft and stupid that one-third of us can be hooked and led around by the nose and like it.\n\nDon't believe me? Check out this nutjob:\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ak7Etcl66bAJBMlOamwTGjLsy6IX?qid=1006040609646\n\nor maybe this idiot:\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqrkTDptljWfdQqx.uKm8YXsy6IX?qid=1006040609115\n\nI know it's not a pretty picture, but it doesn't get better if we look the other way.
227284
It mostly has to do with (1) US seclusion from the world political scene until the early/mid 1900s,(2) US Self-Sufficiency that was established as a result of that seclusion and (3) The fact that no one ever imagined something such as globalization a couple centuries back.\n\nSpecifically, the US was able to grow and prosper (although not without occasional difficulty) in a geographic location that was significantly distant (and difficult to reach; crossing an ocean on flimsy sailboats is not at all simple) from continental Europe, where people, nations, rulers, etc. were battling a huge amount of surmounting problems all brought along with things such as the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, Nationalism, Socialism, Liberalism, riots and revolutions, wars, famines, and urbanization. The difficulty of dealing with such new ideas, developments, etc. was heightened by the fact that Europe had had a long established system of doing/seeing things.\n\nThe US, however, was mostly distant to all these developments, and not having a long established system that was being challanged, it was easier for America to go along with what they were used to. Ultimately, this "being distant from trouble" helped the US establish its own system, grow, and of course, prosper. Thus, there came a time when people did not see what the advantage of changing systems would be when their system was clearly good enough to bring about such prosperity.\n\nThe metric system was established to bring unity to science, and thus to make it more "scientific" (for example, the meter is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second, the denominator of that fraction being the speed of light in a vacuum: 299792458 meters per second.). Countries outside Europe that adopted this system chose it, beacause they had no other choice. They were not significant contributers to science, and thus had to accept the established SI system, which was, not only practical, but also more precise and effective, and allowed scientists to draw conclusions, make hypotheses and establish relations more easily. The US, however, was a growing and potentially powerful country and did not necessarily need to "conform".\n\nAlthough the US scientific institutions do use the metric system today, the SI system is not widely established outside universities, institutions, etc.. Milk is still sold in gallons, and shoes in inches, for example.\n\nAt any rate, although it would theoretically be much easier for the American people to live with a system based on multiles of 10 and direct relations between units (1 liter of water is 1 kilogram, etc.), the US is now at a position where it is a world leader with an established system. It is now too late to change everything from road signs to education systems. The only link the general US has to the metric system is the fact that one yard pretty much equals one meter.\n\nBesides, like I have mentioned before, no one a couple centuries ago had or could have had imagined a phenomenon that we take for granted today: globalization. US businessmen, landowners, government, etc. probably just thought "I'm well enough the way I am, there is no need to rock the boat by forcing a new system, everyone that I do business with uses my system anyway, so what's the point?".\n\nAnyway, hope this answers your question.
441277
Because Americans are stupid