THE UNITED STATES IS A FAILED COUNTRY

This article in current Atlantic Monthly captures half the story:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/what-trump-and-his-mob-taught-world-about-america/617579/

More important is what it taught America about itself. We have been lying to ourselves. If Americans want our country to be the fantasy we pretend that it is, we have a lot of work to do. For decades we have not lived the image projected by leaders and media. Now is the time for a reckoning and revision, or accepting that we have failed to realize the ideal "a country where all men are created equal" and that government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" HAS departed..

The mob that stormed congress was fomented by deranged leaders, and media promotion of conspiracy fantasies, but they were living in a country that has failed them and many others: 

This is a country in which income inequality has increased dramatically over the past decade to the point that there is little middle class left and expanding poverty and homelessness,  while a tiny fraction of the population gets enormously wealthy.  The true definition of a "banana republic".

Electing a partly ethnic African president activated the outpouring of persisting personal and institutional racism, and then the next president utilized this segment of society as a political stepping stone.  Black Lives Matter  issues were on full display when white domestic terrorists invaded the capitol and no significant police resistance was mounted.

In the previous election, citizens chose a reality TV fantasy president who voiced their anger and rage but is personally and intellectually incapable of leadership, exploits everyone for his personal gain and is unable to  acknowledge his own mistakes and failures, including the recent election.  

There is a long history of "pay to play government" at all levels in America, while leaders pretend it does not occur here and demean other "3rd world countries" for their graft and corruption.  America has been the go-to place for laundering money for decades with its "shell corporations" which have just recently been forced to reveal owners in a defense bill that Trump vetoed, and which WAS overridden.

The country is so dysfunctional that it was unable to manage a life threatening epidemic because so many don't want to give up their fun/freedom and because of its impact on the economy.  Leadership at many levels could not find a reasonable balance between saving lives and protecting economic security of the people.  And

Washington has become a "forbidden city".  A region where every sort of special interest goes to cash in on the government, i.e. taxpayers money, as facilitated by modern mandarins called "beltway bandits".  The excessive political role of the oil industry in political affairs has resulted in engaging America in two recent wars in the middle east with major destruction to the social, material and physical stability of the region,  with no significant benefit to our country.  This is the parallel of the wars Rome pursued which eventually led to its decline.

This is not a sudden change.  It is not clear when the government went off the rails, but the assassination of Kennedy was a beginning leading into the chaos of the country's response to the Vietnam war.  Nixon's efforts failed to stem the tide.  Carter was a saint, and saints have no role in politics.  The Reagan era brought an increased role of business interests, and the delusions of Republicans that this was the "golden age" because the Soviet Union was failing under its lack of leadership and the credit attributed to Reagan.  The Clinton presidency saw a bipartisan acceptance of "pay to play"   and increasing disregard for the middle class, despite the booming economy.  This is not a Republican Democrat issue, the Clinton's blurred that line.  It is about rich/poor and who is heard in the country.

The United States is a large geographical region with many subregions of special interests.  It would be difficult under any circumstances to govern and manage all the different interests.  This challenge encourages bureaucracy and Washington,  like China, Russia, and other very large governments, have enormous bureaucracies which ineffectively attempt to manage the people and interest groups.  Bureaucracy favors paranoid distrust and the emergence of social media has created a channel of communication for fanning this paranoid distrust. Social media did not create the paranoia, but it serves as a conduit for transmitting it rapidly.  Social media COULD be used to make government more transparent and bring citizens into more knowledge about the conflicts and negotiations being performed.  The major news media are now useless in this regard.  The major TV and paper news media are owned by large private corporations with strong interest in slanting the reporting and cannot perform the functions of the "third estate" reliably.