The United States, a Failed State?

Here's an interesting op-ed from the NY Times by Thomas L. Friedman. The key bit:

The miniversion of this is California, which, as others have noted, is becoming America’s biggest “failed state.” Californians had hoped they could overcome their dysfunctional system by electing an outsider, a former movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He would slay the system, like the Terminator. But he couldn’t.

Mr. Obama was elected for similar reasons. People had hoped that his unique story, personality and speaking skills could bring the country together, overcome paralysis and deliver nation-building at home. A lot of the disappointment settling in among Obama voters today is prompted by their dawning realization that maybe, like Arnold, he can’t.

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The standard answer is that we need better leaders. The real answer is that we need better citizens. We need citizens who will convey to their leaders that they are ready to sacrifice, even pay, yes, higher taxes, and will not punish politicians who ask them to do the hard things. Otherwise, folks, we’re in trouble. A great power that can only produce suboptimal responses to its biggest challenges will, in time, fade from being a great power — no matter how much imagination it generates.

My best guess is that the US is in fact well on its way to being a failed state because it unable to find leaders to lead, who can compromise, and who can get the public to realize that taxes are the price of civilization. Instead, the US has been destroyed by mad fanatics who argued that "the only good government is no government" and who used Bush to run up a deficit so that when real problems came, the government would be hamstrung and unable to spend to save the system from itself. The legacy of George Bush is a failed state.