He didn’t even have to try that hard.

I read the news today — oh, boy. There was a terrorist attack on Christmas morning. The media has decided to call it a “massive explosion believed to be intentional,” because many of us prefer to live in the shallow comfort of denial. I’m not going to say a word to my family until we’re done opening presents, over video chat, because we can’t see each other in person. And yet, my thoughts are in Nashville and its implications. My thoughts are also with the kids who didn’t write to Santa for toys this year. They wrote for things like shoes and textbooks.

I’m wondering when we’re going to wake up. I think Americans live in a failed state now, close if not identical to the “third world countries” we’ve always considered ourselves better than.

Right now Donald Trump, still our president, isn’t thinking about kids in poverty or victims of terrorism at all. He’s busy playing golf and casually plotting to overthrow the government.

Before leaving for his private resort, he vetoed a pay raise for American troops and destroyed a stimulus bill, but not before he pardoned 26 of his most loyal allies, who basically serve as his personal mafia.

Now the government might shut down.

Let’s think about that for a minute. We’re in the middle of the worst health crisis in American history, and we’re facing the possibility that our own government will be temporarily unavailable.

This isn’t complaining. It’s not an expression of outrage. These are just the facts Americans are all processing over the holidays, as we try to rest and spend a little time with our families.

We’re a Failed State.

Here’s how the average dictionary defines a failed state: It’s a “government that has become incapable of providing the basic functions and responsibilities of a sovereign nation.”

That sounds like us, doesn’t it?

I mean, we just got massively hacked by another nation. We’re still trying to figure out exactly what happened. Americans can’t rely on their leaders to pass basic relief legislation in a time of crisis. Bombs are going off on Christmas morning. Americans are scared to leave their homes, and we don’t know if our current president is going to abide by a peaceful transition of power, or continue to flirt with martial law.

That about sums things up.

Our government isn’t in control. It can’t provide for the people, even when they have full-time jobs and pay their taxes.

We’re fending for ourselves now, and our loved ones.

If you’re like me, you grew up being taught that other countries were failed states. They were all African and Middle Eastern nations. Our parents and teachers insisted that would never happen over here.

And now look, it’s happening.

Here’s What Our President is Up To:

• He’s on vacation.
• He’s still pouting over his election loss.
• He’s weighing the pros and cons of a military coup.
• He’s holding our lives hostage.

There’s nothing surprising about this. This is exactly what political scientists have been predicting. It’s still unsettling.

We’re just watching at this point. As different militia groups plan and promote marches in D.C. on Inauguration Day, we’re just waiting things out. We’re trying to stay calm and patient.

We’ve been turned into spectators in our own democracy. It’s all we really have the energy for at this point.

Our President Enjoys Hurting People.

If there were ever going to be a dictator in America, Trump is the man for the job. He likes destroying lives. He’s been doing it for years. He did it even before he was elected president.

We’re still seeing the depths of his depravity. It looks bottomless at this point.

The last few days have shown us just how vindictive he is. While Trump broods at his resort, Americans are dying at a rate of 3,000+ a day from a disease that was completely preventable.

We know what’s really going on with Trump.

On the surface, he’s pretending to stand up for his supporters, the righteous and underrepresented working class. He isn’t, though. He’s basically flipping Americans the bird one last time, before he braces himself for a final, desperate play to stay in power.

This is what happens in failed states. It’s happening here.

This Pandemic Broke Us.

Trump spent the last year undermining science and nurturing conspiracy theories. He engaged in stochastic terrorism. He tried to take credit for a vaccine after bungling the distribution plan. His own supporters are so doped up on fake news, they won’t even take it.

That means we’ll never reach herd immunity, and we’ll likely have to redo the vaccine process all over again once the virus mutates. You know that’s going to happen. There’s already a new variant that spreads almost twice as fast, and kills just as many people.

Let’s face it. We were already a weak nation.

This pandemic broke us.

Americans Are Poor.

On Christmas, a quarter of Americans can’t afford to eat. Lines at food banks wind along buildings and roadways. Almost 8 million people have dropped into poverty just since August.

More than half of Americans couldn’t scrounge up a thousand dollars to cover an emergency. They have no savings.

They’re deep in debt. They’re jobless. They can no longer hope or plan for a brighter future. They’re stuck, treading water.

The only thing we really have to look forward to is the slow rollout of a vaccine that Trump couldn’t even order enough doses of, a problem which other people had to fix.

Our Healthcare System is Collapsing.

Experts spent the last year warning us what would happen if we didn’t get this virus under control. Now it’s unfolding before us.

Hospitals are at capacity.

Doctors and nurses are traumatized by months of never-ending shifts and a constant flood of sickness and death. More than half of them are experiencing symptoms of burnout and depression. Many of them are planning to leave the medical profession and never return.

We aren’t talking enough about this, but the fallout will become more and more apparent as life gets back to “normal.” We won’t realize the true extent of the damage until late 2021.

This point brings us back to the idea of America as a failed state. Imagine hospitals left with staffing shortages, unable to provide the basic care they could before all this started.

It didn’t have to be this way. We made it so.

Our Education System is Collapsing.

Our schools begged for money to buy protection equipment, and to upgrade their ventilation systems.

Most of them got nothing.

I know teachers who go home in tears every night due to the stress and anxiety of this pandemic. They’re disillusioned by the inaction of their local leaders, who left them exposed and vulnerable. Like nurses, they’re also planning to leave after the end of the year.

They can’t take this anymore. Who can blame them? You can imagine debilitated hospitals. Now imagine public schools further weakened by the incompetence of our officials. It’s going to be a reality.

We Won’t Recover from This Anytime Soon.

America was already facing a nursing and teacher shortage. Our response to the pandemic has sped it up, and made it worse.

Everyone is bunkered down now except the anti-maskers and conspiracy theorists. They’re out there holding fascist rallies, spreading the virus along with their fear and anger. Compassion and empathy have become dirty words. If you complain, people tell you to shut up. They can’t wait to blame people for their problems and berate them.

This is also what happens in a failed state.

Empathy becomes rare. As our systems erode, we adopt a mentality of massive indifference toward the suffering of others. We begin to dehumanize each other.

We’re a Land of Refugees in Waiting.

There’s only a small fraction of Americans who seem to care anymore. Sadly, we’re too busy with our own families to show compassion toward others. We’ve been diminished. Some of us are living in denial. We simply won’t admit what’s happening in front of our own eyes, and that’s the most dangerous thing of all.

This is what goes on in a failed state, a so-called “third world country.” Even the best people feel like giving up. They start trying to escape.

That’s us. It’s worth remembering that “move to New Zealand” was the top Google Search after the first presidential debate.

We’re a country of refugees.

The smart and affluent will flee this country the second they can, once they get their vaccine and travel restrictions ease. Just wait.

You’ll see.

We Need to Wake Up.

Is there hope? Sure, always. But what we need right now isn’t hope. What we need is honesty and awareness.

We need to be upfront about what’s happening, and where our country is headed if we keep acting like everything’s fine.

It’s not.

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