Watching the American train wreck makes me anxious as I wonder if the republic handed down to us 250 years ago will survive to the end of Trump’s term. We might have already lost it.
To answer my question of “are things as bad as they seem to be,” I turn to history, but first, I must define “bad.” Kind of like going to the doctor’s office and saying that I “feel bad” won’t get me the help I need. There are so many options for “bad,” from having a headache to sepsis. There are easy remedies for headaches, but sepsis could kill me. But what if, in addition to sepsis, I had other maladies like metastatic cancer, addiction, dementia, clinical depression, and heart disease? Surely, the doctor would want to know and address those before I can begin to feel better.
It seems that we can no longer consider our government a headache. A tax audit is a headache. Bureaucratic red tape is a headache. A slide into authoritarianism, people losing their healthcare, massive corruption, invading American cities under the guise of protection, and spreading lies to justify actions, counts for more than just a headache.
Metastatic Republic: Corruption
When corruption has spread beyond containment, affecting every organ of governance, starting from the very top, the executive branch, that’s not curable with a nap. The current President has turned informal influence and conflicts of interest into institutional norms. The United States, as a whole, scored 65 on the Corruption Perception Index in 2024. It now stands at 67.5. (on a 0–100 scale, where 0 = “highly corrupt” and 100 = “very clean”). This ranks us #27 in the world behind countries like Estonia, Uruguay, and Bhutan, clearly not in the lead for transparency and accountability.
While we are sliding down the “clean” scale, under the current Administration, the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice (a core corruption watchdog set up after Watergate to prosecute public officials) has been stripped of power, staff, and influence. It has reportedly decreased from more than 30 attorneys to about 5.