The U.S.' incompetence at handling coronavirus doesn't make me very confident about our ability to, say, fight a major war. Not to mention coping with climate change.

I mean, yes, it's not helpful to just wring one's hands and wail that we live in a failed state and blah blah blah.

But we really have screwed things up quite badly, and it should be a wake-up call that we need to rebuild our competence as a nation. https://twitter.com/JJ_McCullough/status/1252243507877568518

Making excuses ("Other countries screwed up too!") doesn't do a damn thing to rebuild our competence as a nation.

Only electing more serious, competent leaders and engaging in deep institutional reforms will do that.

The first thing we need to rebuild national competence is to elect leaders whose primary purpose is NOT to fight culture wars.

That means no more Trumps. It also means no "Trump of the Left" or whatever that would be.

We need leaders focused on national competence.

And no more Mitch McConnell type partisan warriors. No Congressional leaders who play brinksmanship games and revel in parliamentary tricks and veto points and stonewalling.

And kill the filibuster, of course.

The general populace can elect better leaders. We can also demand deep institutional reform throughout our government. Make the CDC the best in the world again. Review the FDA's regulatory framework. Lift pay caps for the civil service. That sort of thing.

And normal people who are not activists or politicians have lots of power. At our jobs, on social media, in our daily lives, we can choose to support national competence or we can choose to shout for attention and start petty fights. It's a choice we make every day.

If coronavirus isn't enough of a wake-up call about America's national competence, perhaps the coming depression will be. The world will continue to batter and bruise this country until we get serious and wise up.

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