Americans losing faith amid Washington failures
People protest over the death of George Floyd in New York, the United States, June 1, 2020. Photo: Xinhua
A recent survey found that an overwhelming majority of Americans believed their country had spiraled out of control, as the nation has been besieged by riots and a never-ending COVID-19 pandemic, with Chinese analysts warning that the US has become a "failed state."
The NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey showed that 80 percent of American voters felt their country was unstable. The "out of control" selection covers Republicans (66 percent), Democrats (92 percent), and Independents (78 percent).
Chinese experts noted that US society has become divergent and polarized, and regardless of their opinions on the Trump administration, most agreed on one thing - they had lost faith in their country.
The poll, released Sunday, came amid nationwide protests triggered by the death of George Floyd and widespread concerns from US local governments and experts that the protests could exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll surveyed a sample of 1,000 voters, with a margin error of 3.59 percentage points.
According to the latest data on Monday from the Coronavirus Resource Center of Johns Hopkins University, confirmed cases in the US had reached 1,942,363, with the death toll hitting 110,514.
Data also revealed that it took the US 50 days for the number of COVID-19 patients grow from one to 1,000, and only eight days to see the number surge past 10,000 from March 11 to March 19. By the following week, the US had 100,000 confirmed cases. And in less than three months, the US reported 2 million cases.
United States Leads the World in Covid-19 Deaths
 |
| - It’s an indisputable fact: the United States leads the world in the number of Covid-19 deaths. As of 15 May, three months after the country’s first confirmed coronavirus death, the US death toll from the pandemic has reached a remarkable 88,000 deaths. That rising figure is more than double the number of coronavirus deaths of the next highest country, the United Kingdom at 34,000 deaths. The pandemic is still in its early stages and many fear the worst is yet to come. Today’s coronavirus mortality picture will no doubt change over time, continuing to evolve and remaining a long-term threat, as the coronavirus spreads death and suffering to populations across the planet. Among the world’s ten most populous countries, representing 58 per cent of the world’s population, a strong correlation exists between population size and the total number of annual deaths from all causes. China and India, for example, represent 18 percent of the world’s population and about 18 percent of the world’s total number of annual deaths. Similarly, the United States population is 4 percent of the world’s population and has about 5 percent of the world’s annual number of deaths However, the distribution of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic differs greatly from the distribution of the world’s total annual deaths. Whereas the US accounts for 5 percent of the world’s number of annual deaths, the country now has 29 percent of the world’s total Covid-19 deaths. In contrast, China, which accounts for 18 percent of the world’s total number of annual deaths, now has about 2 percent of the world’s total Covid-19 deaths (Figure 1). |
The US government and society are giving up on virus prevention efforts due to ineffective measures aimed at subsiding the riots. The protesters could care less about the virus, and there are some who feel it's not as important as demonstrating against racism and police brutality, according to Chinese analysts.
The US, as a country that possesses the most advanced medical resources and scientific capabilities, ironically has become the nation hardest hit by the virus and deserves to be labeled as one of the world's most failed states amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sun Chenghao, an assistant research professor at the Institute of American Studies, China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
"These are typical characteristics of a failed sate - angry people, an irresponsible and dysfunctional government, exhausted police force, low-credit media, and leaders without leadership capabilities. It seems like the US has them all," said a Beijing-based expert on China-US relationship who requested to remain anonymous.
On social media, there has been an overwhelming number of voices among Americans who believe the Trump administration failed the people. Some say the Trump administration is only creating divergence when it doesn't dare to slam racism, but instead threatens to quell the unrest with the military, while the country continues to suffer from the virus.
The poll also showed that Americans are troubled by other concerns. About 60 percent worry they or their family members could be infected by the virus, 46 percent thought the US economy was doing badly, and nearly 60 percent said they are more troubled by George Floyd's death and the actions of the police than the violent demonstrations.
Source link
RELATED ARTICLES:
Trump adds fuel to fire as racial tensions reach boiling point
"Lowlifes and losers": US President Donald Trump is doing his best to intensify the conflict instead of solving the problem by lashing out at the protesters and calling them lowlifes. Illustration: GT
"The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast!" US President Donald Trump decried protesters who refused to tolerate an unjust and racist system on Twitter Tuesday. Even if the President has made racist remarks many times in the past, the words he chose against the backdrop of the ongoing violent protests spreading across the US still shocked many people.
Protests triggered by the death of George Floyd have spread to at least 140 American cities, but it seems Trump has done little to appease the anger. Instead, he used tweets to hurl insults and threats, which has fueled rage and violence escalated as a result.
Calling protesters "lowlifes and losers," Trump clearly was attempting to demoralize protesters while catering to his white supremacist electoral base. Can you imagine Trump using the same words to refer to right-wing protesters at white supremacist demonstrations?
The riots have highlighted the racial injustice in US society. People take to the streets to vent their anger and disappointment toward the country that has tacitly allowed racial discrimination.
But, sadly under US electoral politics, the Trump administration has no interest in hearing their voices or finding a solution to the ingrained social woes.
African American voters are key to the Democratic Party, while Trump relies largely on a white, working-class base he energized in 2016. During the ongoing unrest, Trump cares more about how to embarrass and attack Democrats and woo white voters. He bashed Democrat-run cities, urging "Democrat Mayors and Governors" to "get tough" after riots broke out.
It's difficult to tell when the riots will come to an end. But it's almost certain that under the leadership of current US administration, especially within US electoral politics, it's hard to find a real solution to address racial injustice.
Racial issue has become a Gordian knot for the US. Racial inequality is so deeply-rooted that even an African American president failed to address it. Racial equality didn't improve during the tenure of former US president Barack Obama, but worsened. Under US electoral politics and given the country's institutional and structural defects, the historical injustice and inequality cannot be fixed.
Repeated riots over racial issue have shown that the US' racial equality policy has failed. When US strength was on the rise in the past, the country was able to allocate more resources to soothe ethnic minorities at the bottom.
But the US is declining, and, in the process, various conflicts have broken out compounded by the COVID-19 epidemic, which further constrained the US' ability to launch reforms. The two political parties of the US has neither real interest nor the necessary resources to completely address the racial inequality.
Source link
RELATED ARTICLES:
Related Posts:
Amercan CIA destabilizes other countries, plot backfires!
US is now the new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic with active cases over 85,505 patients!
Poor US handling of pandemic exposes cruelty of capitalism
The US has a strong capacity for COVID-19, but that's more of a capital capacity. It is the ability of the US elites to control society in the midst of the epidemic.
