In the words of the Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey, “Ending the pandemic would have been the single best thing the federal government could have done to preserve the country’s wealth, health, and economic functioning. The Trump administration, in its hubris, obstinacy, and incompetence, failed to do it.” Donald Trump not only failed to end the pandemic, but he actively fought against public health experts, defying the CDC, encouraging conservative activists to “liberate” their states, slowing down testing, and even going so far as to politicize the wearing of masks.

And, as a result, the United States, with just 5% of the global population, currently has 25% of the COVID-19 deaths. And it would appear that we’re just getting started. Six states set record highs for new Coronavirus infections today alone, making this our worst single day for new infections since the disease first reached our shores. What’s more, it would appear as though it’s moving into younger populations.

As other nations are getting COVID-19 behind them, and moving beyond the pandemic, here in America we’re discussing the very real possibility that Arizona may not have enough hospital beds to care for the sick. And, in spite of this, we’re still not taking coordinated federal action to ramp up a comprehensive testing program and stop the spread of the disease. In fact, word just came out that the Trump administration will be cutting funding for drive-through testing facilities.

Here’s how we compare, as of today, with the nations we once considered to be our peers.

Back in May, I posted the following question on social media: “Serious question. If we continue down the ‘we’re not going to even try to contain this’ path, will Americans no longer be able to travel internationally without 14 day quarantines?” Well, it looks as though we now have the answer. According to new reporting out of Brussels, the European Union is considering the barring of visitors from the United States starting on July 1. Looking at the above graphs, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but the folks at Fox News are up in arms, demanding that the Europeans remember what our grandparents did to help them during WWII, and suggesting this has more to do with the politics of power than it does with public health. The truth, however, is that we deserve this fate… Let’s not forget that this was the Trump administration brain trust that decided that it was safe to reopen the economy. The President’s daughter was on the committee, but not a single scientist, let alone an epidemiologist.

I take no pleasure in this. I don’t like the fact that I’m raising my family in a nation in decline — in a pariah nation. But I do see the humor in it. For all of Trump’s railing against “shithole” countries, and the right’s fear mongering about caravans of diseased would-be immigrants making their way to America, it only seems fitting that we’d now find ourselves on the other side, trying desperately to make the case that we really aren’t as diseased, dangerous and insane as we appear. But all the evidence points to the fact that we are. And we’d be well-served to accept it, and act accordingly. We need to do some serious introspection, and accept, regardless of our finger pointing at others, that we’ve been the shithole country all along.

And it’s not just the fact that we did nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19. It’s that we did so willfully. It’s not that we didn’t have the financial wherewithal to take action, or the ability to put plans in motion, like almost every other advanced nation on earth did. It’s that we actively fought against doing the right, responsible and intelligent thing, choosing instead to focus on blaming others for our plight, and engage in magical thinking.

60 years of Republican manipulation, I’m afraid to say, have brought us to point where we are no longer a force for good in the world, but a country to be fearful of. We are stupid, cruel and violent. And we deserved to be shunned.

For those of you who don’t accept the truth of what I’m saying, here’s an example from earlier today.

This first lady is just saying Level 1 QAnon stuff. She's basically reading off the pamphlet.

Hard to overstate just how pervasive this mass delusion is 40 minutes outside of any city in America. https://t.co/YykSTcH3t2

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) June 25, 2020

And here is another.

Just flat out wrong. Despicable doesn’t go far enough. The final words of George Floyd should NEVER be invoked like this. Anyone who mocks the murder of a fellow human has no place in public office. Period. https://t.co/l0wyVE2BP4

— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 25, 2020

Yes, I know that there is still reason to be hopeful. I know that there is a strong and growing resistance. I know that young people are in the streets. I’m just disheartened today, thinking about how we got to this place, and the decades of intellectual rot that we have to contend with. This didn’t just happen overnight. The disinformation, fear mongering, and racism that we turned a blind eye toward all of these years has brought us to this point, pushing us down the slippery slope toward authoritarian idiocracy. And we have a generation of unbelievably hard work ahead of us to make things right.