We Are Living in a Failed State

[douglas9]

When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms. It took the scale and intimacy of a pandemic to expose their severity—to shock Americans with the recognition that we are in the high-risk category.

The crisis demanded a response that was swift, rational, and collective. The United States reacted instead like Pakistan or Belarus—like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dys­func­tional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering. The administration squandered two irretrievable months to prepare. From the president came willful blindness, scapegoating, boasts, and lies. From his mouthpieces, conspiracy theories and miracle cures. A few senators and corporate executives acted quickly—not to prevent the coming disaster, but to profit from it. When a government doctor tried to warn the public of the danger, the White House took the mic and politicized 
the message.

Every morning in the endless month of March, Americans woke up to find themselves citizens of a failed state. 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.


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/

[Blues Heron]

1. we spent trillions on war from 2000 to 2020

we all took off our shoes in airports for years

we blew up pickup trucks in afghanistan by remote control year after year after year unendingly like it was some existential crisis for us

but yet no masks, no tests, "I'm not a shipping clerk" etc etc

[UpInArms]

2. More from your link:

Trump came to power as the repudiation of the Republican establishment. But the conservative political class and the new leader soon reached an understanding. Whatever their differences on issues like trade and immigration, they shared a basic goal: to strip-mine public assets for the benefit of private interests. Republican politicians and donors who wanted government to do as little as possible for the common good could live happily with a regime that barely knew how to govern at all, and they made themselves Trump’s footmen.

Like a wanton boy throwing matches in a parched field, Trump began to immolate what was left of national civic life. He never even pretended to be president of the whole country, but pitted us against one another along lines of race, sex, religion, citizenship, education, region, and—every day of his presidency—political party. His main tool of governance was to lie. A third of the country locked itself in a hall of mirrors that it believed to be reality; a third drove itself mad with the effort to hold on to the idea of knowable truth; and a third gave up even trying.

[The Wizard]

3. This peels the scab

off of our primitive approach to everything. Healthcare and the government's role in protecting its citizens / residents should not be a for profit endeavor.

[appalachiablue]

4. Failed state, too serious an assessment for some I know who

don't want to hear it because:

1. they don't follow news sources to support this

2. they disagree and think things are ok except for superficial issues

3. they don't want to hear it because:

a. they're looking forward to retirement, or they're already there and don't want to discuss anything 'depressing'

b. the grandkid(s) are their main focus, and they don't want to admit or know that things are this bad

[walkingman]

5. Totally agree - the question is....Can we do anything about it? Not sure at this point. This is the

result of 40 years of denial and pandering to a "delusional" population. We have been easy pickings.

[The Blue Flower]

6. An excellent analysis

"Sarah Palin was Trump's John the Baptist."

[Sir Normie]

7. And Many of Us Are DYING in a Failed State

Too many!

[JudyM]

8. So on point. This is the narrative that should be in high school history books going forward.

[StevieM]

9. This was a great article. (eom)