The US Is Now A Failed State

[Celerity]

Donald Trump's leadership has been so catastrophic that even a win in November might not be enough to turn the country around.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-us-is-now-a-failed-state



The view from outside of the United States is clear: America is no longer a functioning democracy and is deteriorating rapidly into a failed state. Under Donald Trump, the systems of checks and balances has broadly failed to curtail his autocratic instincts. He sailed through impeachment for obvious crimes against his own country, ignored damning intelligence reports from America’s agencies with no consequence, destroyed America’s professional civil service, and turned the White House into a piranha infested swamp of cronyism. Trump staffers think nothing of ignoring court issued subpoenas, cut press conferences short when Trump can’t answer questions, and propagate lies from the Oval Office on a daily basis. And this was all before the worst pandemic in 100 years hit the United States and exposed far more lethal layers of Trump’s corruption and incompetence — all of which has gone almost completely unchecked.

The Trump Virus

The Coronavirus pandemic (aptly called the ‘Trump Virus’ by Nancy Pelosi) has laid bare the extent of the Trump administration’s inability to run a government. If one were to write a book on how not to handle a pandemic, the United States’ response to the Coronavirus would provide a text book case. From denying it was ever a threat to dismissing scientists and refusing to wear a mask, Trump and his team of political hacks and grifters have done almost everything wrong. When the pandemic hit America in March of this year, the Trump administration fell apart at the seams. As George Packer in the Atlantic noted:

With no national plan—no coherent instructions at all—families, schools, and offices were left to decide on their own whether to shut down and take shelter. When test kits, masks, gowns, and ventilators were found to be in desperately short supply, governors pleaded for them from the White House, which stalled, then called on private enterprise, which couldn’t deliver. States and cities were forced into bidding wars that left them prey to price gouging and corporate profiteering. Civilians took out their sewing machines to try to keep ill-equipped hospital workers healthy and their patients alive. Russia, Taiwan, and the United Nations sent humanitarian aid to the world’s richest power—a beggar nation in utter chaos.

From there, things got progressively worse. Trump’s astonishing campaign of disinformation created a culture war out of wearing masks and listening to medical advice from experts. This completely unnecessary war has essentially destroyed America’s ability to handle a national pandemic, splitting the country into responsible States heeding the latest scientific advice from medical professionals, and irresponsible States heeding the advice of a president who believes ingesting bleach could cure the Coronavirus. The pro-Trump media insisted the Coronavirus was essentially a blue state problem as the virus ravaged the coasts and left much of the middle and south of the country untouched. Medical professionals pleaded with Republican governors the Trump administration to look at the science and prepare for the worst, but they ignored social distancing and mask wearing mandates, engaged in ludicrous conspiracy theories, and urged their citizens to put themselves in danger for the sake of the economy. Predictably, this has led to an unmitigated disaster. The Coronavirus is ripping through completely unprepared red states at a ferocious pace, and the total death toll now stands at over 150,000. America is now unable to combat this deadly plague that is, as the New York Times reports, “splintering into deadly pieces”. There isn’t one outbreak — there are multiple, and each requires a completely different solution that the federal government under Trump has no ability to provide: As infections mount across the country, it is dawning on Americans that the epidemic is now unstoppable, and that no corner of the nation will be left untouched. As of Tuesday, the pathogen had infected at least 4.3 million Americans, killing almost 150,000. Many experts fear the virus could kill 200,000 or even 300,000 by year’s end…. Each state, each city has its own crisis driven by its own risk factors: vacation crowds in one, bars reopened too soon in another, a revolt against masks in a third. “We are in a worse place than we were in March,” when the virus coursed through New York, said Dr. Leana S. Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner. “Back then we had one epicenter. Now we have lots.” Trump and the right wing media are completely to blame for this. Wrote Greg Sargent in the Washington Post:

Studies suggest misinformation from Fox and other right-wing media outlets might be making audiences more prone to believing coronavirus conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, even as too-rapid reopenings are a big reason the coronavirus is surging again, his Fox propagandists continue to push the idea that hesitation to reopen schools is pure politics.

The only silver lining here is that Trump’s malfeasance and the right wing media’s complicity is destroying his chances of re-election. But that might not matter, because America is no longer a functioning democracy and there are no guarantees the election result is going to be respected — or even counted properly.

Trump is going to undermine and try to steal the election

For months, Trump has been priming his base to believe that Joe Biden and the Democrats are planning to steal the election from him. Trump does not need to provide any evidence for this because he understands his base and political allies will either believe it or dutifully repeat his talking points. While doing this, Trump and the GOP are making concrete plans to steal the election themselves. Reported the Washington Post:

In truth, the real fraud occurring around the 2020 election is being committed by Trump and his allies, not through individual acts of malfeasance but on a nationwide scale. This type of election fraud is not about adding fake voters. Rather, it’s about subtracting real voters by using false claims of voter fraud to bar millions of eligible voters from the polls. And unlike the types of election misconduct the president likes to tweet about, the type of election misconduct he and members of his party engage in really do affect the vote tallies in — and at times, the outcomes of — our elections. How exactly do they do this? They create draconian policies to combat non-existent voter fraud and systematically purge voters: In the 21st century, Republican politicians have vastly expanded the scope of their “fraud-fighting” measures. No longer content with trying to make it harder to register, McConnell and his allies are eagerly invalidating the ballots of eligible, registered voters as well. One of the most effective tools for affecting election outcomes in the name of fighting fraud has been the voter purge. A purge is essentially a voter-registration drive in reverse: where the former adds people to the voter rolls, the latter removes them. Proponents of purges argue that they’re removing the names of dead or relocated voters, thus making voter impersonation more difficult. In fact, while there’s no evidence of elections being swung by untidy lists, there is clear evidence that eligible voters are being deregistered at alarming rates, with evidence-free worry over voter fraud being used as a pretext.

In Trump’s America, Republicans don’t have to bother hiding their corruption. The parallel reality Trump means Republicans can rig the election by pretending Democrats are the ones doing it. This disgusting ruse is made possible by Trump’s iron grip over the party and the complete breakdown of the nation’s system of checks and balances.

Republicans have wrecked America...............


snip

[TexasTowelie]

1. I'm not quite ready to declare the US as a failed state,

but as long as Trump is at the helm it is a shithole country.

[Celerity]

2. here is more

One can now only conclude that the modern day GOP is an organized death cult determined to cause ecological and societal collapse. It does not pretend to care about the environment (global warming is apparently a Chinese hoax), and it is accelerating a culture war that is now being fought in the streets of America. The GOP has empowered, enabled, and protected a dangerous fascist, and have ignored the rule of law to do so. The Republican Party created Trump, and they are sacrificing the constitution to keep him in power. America isn’t necessarily becoming a failed state — it is already a failed state. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, a failed state is:

…unable to fulfill the administrative and organizational tasks required to control people and resources and can provide only minimal public services. Its citizens no longer believe that their government is legitimate, and the state becomes illegitimate in the eyes of the international community.

The evidence for this is clear: The Trump administration is unable to provide adequate resources or guidance to combat the deadly plague currently engulfing the country, there is, as the LA Times reports, "an apocalyptic collapse in state and local government”, and the international community has long ago given up engaging seriously with the current administration. Under Trump’s leadership, America has basically collapsed.

Can Biden turn things around?

While the civilized world waits on tenterhooks for the November election, it is not clear that America can come back from its current abyss. Trump hasn’t just opened painful historical wounds and exacerbated racial tensions in America, he has torn those wounds to shreds and poured gasoline on already fractured racial relationships. Rather than unifying the country during a deadly pandemic, Trump chose to break it apart for his own political gain. He will be remembered in history for helping kill hundreds of thousands of his own citizens through incompetence and laziness. He will also be remembered for bringing the most powerful country on earth to its knees, potentially to the point of no return.

America is now so shattered, so disjointed, and so violently at war with itself that it will take a miracle to stitch it back together again. Joe Biden presents a glimmer of hope in one of the darkest chapters of American history, but there may not be enough will from warring citizens to bring the country together. The Democratic contender is 77 years old and by his own admission in the last years of his professional life. It is an enormous burden he has chosen to carry, and one that must be shared by every citizen determined to make something good out of this godawful mess.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. This article spells it out - and has been my fear for a long time

I remember seeing all the Democratic presidential candidates standing on the stage back in 2008 - and I remember thinking - after the invasion of Iraq and all - things were in such a mess, who would want the job now?? And here we are in 2020 and the issues we faced then don't even compare. Laws no longer count, our longtime allies will have nothing to do with us, safety and environmental protections have been repealed and Americans are dying by the thousands with no end in sight!

I have no doubt that Joe Biden has the experience and knows enough qualified experts to deal with these myriad issues - but it's going to take generations to fix if we're lucky enough to survive it.

[BlueMTexpat]

4. Merely removing Trump from

office will NOT be enough to save the US!

We MUST ALSO have strong Dem majorities in BOTH the Senate AND the House for any hope of beginning to turn things around.

So much damage has been done to our institutions and global credibility that it may take generations not only to undo the damage and stop the daily hemorrhaging but to create a better nation.

We cannot simply return to policies, etc. from the pre-Trump era. We must do much better, especially wrt plugging at least some of the loopholes that have since become glaringly obvious.

[Amishman]

5. Uh no, not remotely close to a failed state

Trump is the worst president we've ever had and the Republicans aren't acting in the best interests of the people, but that does not make a failed state.

We still have real elections. Yes, there is the voter suppression and some corruption issues, but our elections are not rigged shams. Just look at the 2018 blue wave.

The government still provides critical services.

Our people are still some of the most free in the world. It's not perfect, but still pretty good.

Our economy still functions very well.

Not a failed state, article is shark jumping nonsense.

[qazplm135]

6. Absolute baloney

If we are a failed state then what's the fucking point anymore?
It won't take a miracle, just time and hard work.

Jesus.

[myohmy2]

7. yep...

...any state that allows a trump to come power and then watches helplessly as he systematically destroys it is a failed state...

...forget the past, forget the usual rah-rah U.S. rhetoric, trump's destruction has remained basically unchallenged by a weak, helpless system...

...but the question now is, "What's next?".

...four more years, four more years of destruction?

...wait till you see what trump and the Republicans do to remain in power in November...

...republicans...

[betsuni]

8. I expect what happened to the Clinton and Obama administrations will happen again.

Democrats have a slim majority and try to do progressive things, everybody freaks out (conservatives that it's socialism or whatever and others that it's not progressive enough) and Republicans win back the majority in the midterm election and continue to wreck America and blame it on Democrats.