You saw the richest white people you've seen in any country on earth, too. We're certainly a nation of extremes. I'm not sure where you were, but unless you were doing volunteer work in Appalachia or some such, then you likely didn't see real poverty. But, of course, it is here. You have poverty as well -- perhaps you just avoid those people at home?

Affirmative action is a greatly misunderstood issue, even in the U. S.. Private business doesn't have to hire anybody for any specific reason. The only area in which affirmative action is an issue is within the government, or if your company does work under government contract. In other words, you can choose whether or not to operate under affirmative action, and choice is the foundation of real conservatism.

Screenwriters can strike because they aren't important. Air traffic controllers cannot strike, because they're important. Our laws regarding unions have made all but the most essential workers "at-will employees", which means that even as members of unions they enjoy no real protections, and certainly none if they strike.

From the American standpoint there are only three truly conservative issues: Taxes (they should be low), government (it should be small), and guns (they're important to us mostly as a hold over from the time we had to kick your asses out). The religious zealotry is not really a conservative issue, as demonstrated by the Bush presidency, in which he was quite helpful to the so-called religious right, but alienated the conservative base by growing the government by 30% and being overall quite fiscally irresponsible.

On the other hand, our liberals only want to be more like you. Higher taxes, more wealth redistribution, less gun rights, less property rights, more socialized medicine, more importance placed on environmental issues than economic issues, et. cetera.