system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are some Americans so patriotic about the flag, army, tech, the moon, WWII, music etc. but so unpatriotic when it comes to taxes and welfare?
gpt
It's not something new, it's been around since the country started basically. The country wanted to avoid being tyrannical at all so let a lot of governmental power fall to the states and local governments, that's why even today states can have pretty drastically different laws than others (like gun laws). This mentality passes down to the people to varying degrees.

You have the conservatives who believe the government should stay out of most people's lives, more power to local and state governments and less to the federal. Because of their distrust of a stronger federal government as opposed to states and local communities they also believe in more power to private enterprise, and that includes things like colleges and health care.

Liberals here tend to be more of a socialist(ish) view with more federal government power, for things like public colleges, more and more towards a socialized medicine, etc.

And of course you have every color of the political spectrum represented too, but those are the tendencies.

Nationalistic pride isn't related to social programs. Conservatives just tend to put their trust more in private industry and local governments instead of the federal government.