There is a fascinating piece over at UnHerd by Aris Roussinos. It argues that Covid-19 has exposed America as a failed state,
Our present moment, in all its dangers, results from this fusion of the two strands of liberalism at the very apogee of American power: the belief that the unfettered free movement of goods, capital, services and people would raise global living standards to endless new heights, and that it was America’s manifest destiny to oversee a worldwide liberal order of free trade and unchallenged US hegemony.
It is surely impossible to view the US at this point as anything other than a cautionary tale, a burning city on a hill, which evokes only the desire for our own society to avoid its fate
Aris Roussinos, UnHerd
I don’t agree with a lot in this piece, but it is a very interesting read, that I highly recommend, because it delves into many of the concerns on the right about our manufacturing base and entanglement in foreign conflicts. These positions used to solely exist on the left, but the rise of the populism has brought these same issue to the forefront of Republican politics. Will be interesting to see if some third party can coalesce working class Republicans and Democrats that clearly outnumber elites in both the GOP and Democratic party or will racial and social issues continue to keep these two factions divided?