Is public service dead?
Ben Everidge for Thomas
are we a broken nation?
Is public service dead in America?
Are we a broken nation?
Have our political institutions and leaders in Washington and numerous state capitals failed us?
Is America too divided by red and blue, black and white, male and female, straight and LGBTQ, to overcome and resolve our apparent travails?
The argument for yes is stunningly strong, it would appear.
The American Track Record of Late
We have been amazingly unsuccessful in half a year at controlling COVID-19. Deaths are over now 150,000 on a virus we were told would miraculously disappear back in February before it infected more than four million of us.
Nearly 50 million of our fellow citizens have had to file unemployment claims after the nation shut down to combat the novel coronavirus that only got worse.
Wearing or not wearing protective face masks, the kind you see in nearly every hospital room in America, has become a weapon of choice between the major political parties.
The streets of our great nation are awash in violent protests against racial discrimination that has been deadly itself. We are re-litigating the Civil War, arguing whether or not the United States should honor Confederate leaders who treasonously tried to divide this nation more than a century and a half ago.
Too many of our elected national and state leaders are ignoring the statistics and expert advice of healthcare professionals, denying that the virus will spread further and farther than ever before.
In ignoring the facts of the pandemic, we are rushing to reopen schools where feeder spread is sure to prevail by the millions, and an effective national strategy or vaccine to control COVID-19 is absent in the meantime.
Snake oil solutions such as injecting disinfectants radiating intense light or taking discredited doses of Hydroxychloroquine have been promoted from the White House podium in the name of better science.
Our government’s leadership has undermined the American intelligence and law enforcement community, berated and bullied world war-tested allies like Great Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and more, and disparaged Communist-style American media as enemies of the people.
Even our Constitution and American Rule of Law have been assaulted from within the walls of political power in our nation’s capital.
Hack attacks on our electronic infrastructure from sworn enemies like Iran and North Korea and long-time adversaries like Russia and China go unchallenged. Our White House is walled off from our citizens while unidentified federal troops are abrasively rounding up protestors in the streets of too many American cities.
Our total national debt has exploded since 2016 from $13.84 trillion to $24.95 trillion just three-and-one-half years later, a jaw-dropping 80 percent increase.
Our Fiscal 2020 deficit is projected to be $3.8 trillion alone.
Congress is allowing financial stimulus support to Americans to fund the impact of COVID-19 to expire too closely this week, even though Washington knew full well months ago that this deadline was approaching.
In fairness, the House of Representatives passed a $3 trillion relief measure on May 15th. Still, it loaded the package with elements they knew would immediately be objectionable to House and Senate Republicans alike.
Climate challenges go unchecked while clear physical evidence of deterioration pot marks the globe.
Our roads and bridges are crumbling.
American courts are clogged and too slow to render judgment.
Congress has impeached two presidents, one from each party, in a staggering 23-year politically paralyzing timespan.
In the meantime, our nation has permitted our President to lie a documented 20,000-plus times with impunity. Congressional oversight has been rendered useless when subpoenas have been ignored by the Executive Branch and members of the House and Senate themselves refuse fact witness evidence and testimony of obvious wrongdoing and potential criminal activity.
In other words, we, as a nation, have become too adept at expertly shooting ourselves in the collective foot.
But …
But is public service in America dead?
Are we doomed as a nation to see things forward only as Democrats, Republicans, or Independents? Is our political paralysis that complete and irreversible? Will a single politician's political needs trump a nation's more significant needs?
Can we not make collective decisions based on real expertise that benefit our country as Americans first and foremost?
Can we not ever again -
Balance a federal budget.
Eliminate national debt.
Distinguish discrimination of any kind.
Vanquish a pandemic.
Protect our citizens from foreign and domestic intrusion.
Better manage climate change.
Embrace a fair immigration system.
Respect our judiciary and the rule of law.
Count on political sunshine from an ethical media.
Rely on the counsel of American intelligence and valued health experts.
Celebrate our allies and adopt a consistent and predictable foreign policy.
Or once again revere truth in the name of life, liberty, and equitable pursuit of happiness?
Can we not accept and treasure Americans for who they were, who they are, and the mistakes they made if they can admit those mistakes and show us a path forward based on the lessons learned from those mistakes and a rational, inclusive vision for America in the 21st century?
We can, America!
But it begins with each of us individually committed to a greater good. A nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. A nation that remembers and honors our founding spirit and enduring cause over 244 years thus far.
A nation that has overcome revolution and civil war, two world wars and other regional wars, numerous depressions and recessions, presidential assassinations, space tragedies, and September 11th can certainly overcome pandemic and division, too.
What is the next step required of us to succeed?
We must first want to be the United States of America.