Thought provoking while not entirely fair. I get that you are trying to shake and wake up Americans walking into disaster. But they are not quite there yet.

When I read US history it strikes me that the US has always been kind of a mess. Yet somehow it just keeps on plowing.

Yet the risk of things going really bad is very much there. But it is almost fascinating how countries broken in quite fundamental ways can actually keep on going.

Many developing countries are deeply corrupt but still keep progressing.

What is perhaps most important is for Americans to begin dispensing with the idea that America is the greatest country on Earth and a model for other countries.

Americans need to begin accepting that they are not the greatest and they could actually learn a thing or two from other countries.