Americans put the Rational in Ir-rational.

"Americans are and always have been credulous skeptics. They question the authority of priests, then talk to the dead; they second-guess their cardiologists, then seek out quacks in the jungle. Like people in every society, they do this in moments of crisis when things seem hopeless. They also, unlike people in other societies, do it on the general principle that expertise and authority are inherently suspect."

-Mark Lilla (excerpt from "The Tea Party Jacobins")