“Stephen Walt, a Harvard University professor of international relations, has argued that worldwide faith in US competence has been one of the pillars of its global standing, and is currently crumbling.”
“”Far from making ‘America great again,’ this epic policy failure will further tarnish the United States’ reputation as a country that knows how to do things effectively,” Walt wrote in Foreign Policy, in a commentary titled “the death of American competence”.”
Medicynical note: Trump appears to have successfully undermined the “administrative” state to the point that it cannot successfully respond to a nationwide threat, much less be of assistance to others. Planning and anticipation are no longer in the U.S. government’s armamentarium. Instead we have a leader with the attention span of a gnat making policy based on bad hunches and suggestions from uninformed TV and radio hosts. His VP is shifting dullness personified as he follows his leader down the path of infamy.
We are left with 50 governors, many quite able, competing with each other for scarce resources for which the federal government has failed to anticipate the need. Our hospitals, staffed by brave but overwhelmed professionals are short of basic protective clothing and life saving equipment. I’ve seen this before in third world countries around the world. Not making America Great seems to be a unique a Trumpian skill.
Medicynic 