America becoming a failed State

Understanding the meaning of failed State

A view of city in Brazil

Failed States comes in many varieties. There are those whose economies have collapsed and territorial boundaries are crumbling. They are easily recognizable in the world and common in North Africa and middle east. Then there are those failed States who are dictatorships (full or partial) which have a degree of working economy, a military, Nuclear weapons etc which protects them from external adversaries. But these States are marred in poverty, social backwardness, tyranny and have no rule of law. While these States have a functional economy to some degree, these economies don’t innovate and produce any meaningful technological progress - they are mostly users of technology rather than creators. These I call failed States with deadbeat economies. Example of this are North Korea, Russia, India, Pakistan and gulf monarchies (gulf states don’t have nukes).

Failed States may even be rich. For example, a nation like Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to its vast Oil reserves. But their society is regressive, their political and social system is archaic and reactionary, their people have few rights and liberties. Their economy is very much based on slave labor. They are ruled by autocrats and oligarchs. The economies of these States have no capacity for technical progress and scientific innovation. Their economy rely on foreign trade of vast energy reserves and importing of slave labor from poor nations. And what is Russia? A giant Gas Station with Nukes.

Then there’s another variety of failed States. Or may be we can call them failed States in the making. This is what America is today. Recall what I said - a country may be rich but still a failed country nonetheless. Saudi Arabia has high GDP per capita comparable to some European nations. But would you prefer to live in Saudi Arabia or to live in Spain? The question is purely rhetorical especially if you are a women. But back to America. Why America is a failed State in its own way?

Now many commentators are saying that Donald Trump is destroying US economy with things like insane tariffs, takeover of central bank, mass deregulation & privatization, dismantling of institutions etc. These things are undoubtedly bad but they still wouldn’t do a great damage in short run. In long run, we wait and see. America is and will remain a formidable economic and military power in foreseeable future. America is a rich nation, with a powerful military and an innovative industry. So what is the real problem? The problem is America is no longer a nation of rule of law. America is becoming a Potemkin democracy. And all other problems originate from this.

America is Potemkin Democracy. A nation revered as leader of liberal values and civilized world - all a facade. Thanks to Donald Trump, this facade is now breaking. Even before Trump, America was inflicting aggression on the world through military and economic means (recall the neocons, missions to export democracy across the world and America’s sanctions regime). But at least for its domestic population, America maintained a semblance of a liberal democracy. We know that American political system is thoroughly corrupted and owned by oligarchs but still, a facade of Democracy was there.

After Trump attempted his coup when he lost the elections, it was a great test for America to show if it’s a nation of rule of law or not. America failed on it miserably. America has these great courts, justice machinery, legal intelligentsia, law firms, monuments etc - supposedly the ingredients of a healthy Justice system and judiciary. But this is all hollow. That’s why Trump easily escaped accountability even after the most serious attack on American State itself.

Then there’s American democracy - a beacon of liberal world. I am under no illusion about American democracy. Even before before Donald Trump, it was an ugly place. Politicians like Ted Cruz, DeSantis, Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham etc and all the way to past like Bush family, Cheney and Ronald Reagan. These scoundrels were in politics before Trump arrived on scene. But no matter how corrupt or sociopathic they were, they still maintained certain political decorum, a mask, to operate in politics. With Trump, the mask fell off as the most grotesque plug uglies invaded politics. You would expect these type of politicians to be disposed to garbage bin in elections. Nobody would vote for them. Here, American democracy failed again and miserably.

Now look at Brazil. A developing nation which is no match to superpower like America. But the force of ‘rule of law’ in Brazil is more meaningful than America. Brazil had its version of Jan 6 when its President after losing elections launched a coup. And now he’s convicted on that and sentenced to 27 years in Prison. You can say that Brazil’s Justice system is a 3rd world dysfunctional machine. But even this imperfect system knew that survival of State from Fascistic threat is the supreme goal. Brazil may be an underdeveloped dysfunctional nation but that doesn’t mean it will tolerate Fascism. And it didn’t.

Politics is a dirty business and invites corrupted people. People who want to amass wealth, people who want to plunder society, people who crave for power. But there has been a sea change in politics in America. Corrupted and sociopathic opportunists were always there in America and plenty (as is the case in political system of any nation). But in current times, the kind of politicians in America are quite frankly those who rightfully belong in lunatic asylum. They have no competence, no understanding of national interest, no inner restraints, no empathy etc - they are collection of the worst of human traits. People who won’t even qualify as Janitors but managed to reach the highest of public offices.

Always remember what failed States are. Failed States can be poor, they can be rich. They can be militarily weak, they can be strong. Size of military or GDP alone is not reflection of a failing society. Failed States are nations which fail in way of life and rule of law. Failed States may collapse due to internal contradictions or may survive a long time. I don’t know the extent of destruction of Trump’s economic policies by the time dust settles. But sociologically, he is reducing America to a place where humanity goes to die.