The failure to manage the pandemic is just the showpiece for national systemic mismanagement to the extent of coming close to actual national self-destruction. The economy is a shambles. 22% of American households are now living under the threat of evictions and serious financial hardship. Those whining for reopening have ignored all the basics of managing a serious disease outbreak. The United States is now the most infected country in the world, by far. The death toll is now nearly the equivalent of three Vietnam Wars.
This is just the latest of America’s self-inflicted disasters. Ten years ago, during the depths of the GFC, I wrote an op-ed called USA a failed state? It may be closer than you think. The op-ed was about America’s famous hobby, institutionalized systemic mismanagement.
At that point, Middle America was a train wreck, and it still is. A lot of private capital was destroyed by the GFC. None of the human misery and massive hits to Main Street generated the slightest interest from the “elites” (You idiots? Elites? You couldn’t run a dunghill.) mismanaging America.
The insularity was based on wealth. The politics was based on wealth. It still is. The Land of the Free Lunch was in charge, and still is. The Home of the Brave was completely forgotten, as usual. Middle America joined its veterans on the streets of the nation. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” became the pursuit of Koch dollars and buying political status.
“Instant patriots” were also purchased wholesale. People who’d never mentioned a damn thing about national affairs or anything else to do with government became messiahs online. The most insane conspiracy theories became paid currency for these vermin. Huge amounts of money went into these fictions and still does.
America, somehow, managed to believe these people were left out of the American Dream. They weren’t. They were the American nightmare of sleazebags who’ve always done whatever they do for money and for no other reason. “Deplorables” was always a euphemism. Since when does a collection of petty criminals, repulsive rednecks and scummy corporates qualify as a legitimate political phenomenon, let alone a demographic?
Meanwhile, the nation unravelled. Genocidal fees for health care, education, rents, and everything else continued to be the norm. 600,000 Americans go broke due to health costs per year, and not even a single bleat has come out of Congress or anything else.
The response? Smugness. Profit. Adorable affluence for the undeserving very few. This is another cultural indicator of how badly America has lost its way. Goldman Sachs, those wonderful garden gnomes, published a statement saying people getting better was bad for business, and it was accepted by the national mismanagement as a profound statement of business values. People? What people? There was no “We the People” in this thinking at any point, and still isn’t.
From utter stupidity to national meltdown, the handbook
The pandemic, however, has changed all that. The US economy is now on the verge of going straight over a cliff. Gigantic numbers of unemployed, asset values on the brink of extinction, cashing infrastructure, toxic water supplies, none of it is even being mentioned. This is the How To manual for obliteration of the United States.
You couldn’t call it mere incompetence. It’s not. It’s a systemic, wilful disregard and diminution of everyone and everything but politics and money. It’s basically a criminal mindset, no more, no less.
Competence is effectively prevented by this maniacal, deranged political environment. Get a spineless weakling with a 100% record of failure as the figurehead and you have everything you need for this multi-tier Pearl Harbor.
Trump will come and go. His legions of ready mix, paid patriotic followers will go back to burglary and ripping off charities. His supporters will disappear, pocket their billions and relax as someone else comes in to clean up the mess as usual. The state has failed, utterly, to manage any of these things.
The end? This time, it could be.
Sooner rather than later, these ongoing failures will smash the US economy to pieces. The society is already totally dysfunctional. The pandemic will rage on unchecked until proper controls are established. 60 million people may or may not suffer from the evictions issues. 40 million or so (numbers are typically unreliable) are unemployed. If they do get jobs, it will be at America’s traditional penny pinching wages. Life can’t return to normal, because nobody knows what normal is anymore.
So tell me, America – Are you great again yet? You’ve got less than 100 days to find out.
