We Got What We Deserve

ANGLO AMERICA, 25 May 2026

Fritz Pointer – TRANSCEND Media Service

24 May 2026 – Joseph de Maister, 18^th-century French lawyer, diplomat and political philosopher, is known for having said: “Every country gets the government it deserves.” This statement alludes to the fact that every nation is ultimately responsible to itself for how it conducts its own internal affairs. If a state has a bad government and corrupt leaders, it’s because the people making up that state have established for itself a bad government. In other words, the blame for the US’ current global and national malaise lies with the North American people. The deranged, delusional, convicted sex-offender malignant narcissist, pedophile, presently occupying the White House, is there because the North American people placed him there, want him there; along with the incompetent, inexperienced sycophants who surround him. The United States deserves such an unfit, unqualified, inept government.

For more than half a century, the US has lost every war it has started, including the current war on Iran. As noted by Harlan K. Ullman in Anatomy of Failure: Why the US Loses Every War it Starts, “ the US has also failed in military interventions it has initiated, interventions undertaken for reasons that turned out to be misinformed, contrived, baseless, ignorant, or just wrong” (1). One unavoidable, even obvious, reason for these decades of monumental, catastrophic failures is the inexperience and lack of knowledge of what passes as United States leadership. Those in power in the U.S. have no experience at all in governance, diplomacy or military matters. Whiteness and the promotion of White Supremacy is the sine qua non for their position, their national and international policies. And, until we tap into the genius of the USA diverse reality we will be mired in the mendacious mediocrity of white exclusivity.

A cursory look at the qualifications to be a government official in China easily exposes the neophytes masquerading as US leadership. Godfree Roberts in Why China Leads the World: Democracy at the Bottom, Data in the Middle, Talent at the Top states: “In addition to the moral uprightness required for Party membership, government officials must demonstrate extraordinary intelligence, competence, and self-discipline” (49).  These criteria alone would disqualify each and every one of the current U.S. Administration. Roberts continues: “The twenty-seven thousand who succeed will earn their first promotion after they have lived in poverty-stricken villages and raised local incomes by fifty percent” (49).  Whoosh, there goes the rest of the U.S. government officials.

Xi Jinping, China’s current president, the son of a former leader, which is very unusual, is the first of his kind to make the top job.  Even for him, the career took 30 years. He started as a village manager, and by the time he entered the Politburo, he had managed areas with a total population of 150 million people and combined GDPs of 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars. George W. Bush, before becoming governor of Texas, or Barack Obama before running for president and certainly not the current U.S. president, could not make even a small county manager in China’s system.  It took Xi Jinping 30 years of experience in governance to reach the top position; not time as a celebrity TV host, TV news talking head, or son-in-law or golfing buddy of the president.

Of course, China is not perfect. The country faces enormous challenges. The social and economic problems that come with accelerated change, like China has experienced, are complex. Pollution is one. Food safety and population issues are others. On the political front, the worst problem is corruption. Corruption is widespread and undermines the system and its legitimacy. But most analysts misdiagnose the disease. They say that corruption is the result of the one-party system, and therefore, in order to cure it, you have to do away with the entire system.

In contrast, most electoral democracies around the world are suffering from dismal performance when it comes to satisfaction with the direction of the country. Trom Washington to Europe, with few exceptions, the vast number of developing countries that have adopted electoral regimes are still suffering from poverty and civil strife. Rebecca Riddell, Oxfam’s US Economic Justice Senior Policy Lead said: “Today’s Census data affirms the shameful fact that the U.S. remains one of the most unequal rich countries in the world. The wealthiest

among us amass unthinkable fortunes, while millions of people live in poverty.” Governments get elected, and then they fall below 50 percent approval in a few months and stay there and get worse until the next election. Democracy, it seems, is becoming a perpetual cycle of elect and regret. At this rate, it appears that it is democracy, as known in the west, and not China’s one-party system, that is in danger of losing legitimacy.

China’s political model will never supplant electoral democracy, because unlike the latter, it does not pretend to be universal. It cannot be exported.But that is the point precisely.  The significance of China’s example is not that it provides an alternative, but the demonstration that alternatives exist. Communism and democracy may both be laudable ideals, but the era of simple, dogmatic universalism is over.

Let us stop telling people and our children that there is only one way to govern ourselves and a singular future towards which all societies must evolve .It is wrong. It is irresponsible. And worst of all it is boring. Let us universally make way for plurality. Perhaps a more interesting age is upon us, an age of multipolarity. Are we brave enough to welcome it? In fact, a Heartland/Rasmussen Poll indicated that 53% of young voters aged 18-39 said they would like to see a democratic socialist candidate win the 2028 presidential election. And 76% said they agree that “Major industries like health care, energy and big tech should be nationalized to give more control and equity to the people.”

The point is that we should get unstuck from the thinking that there is only one political system – election, election, election – that could make it responsive. It is uncertain that elections produce responsive government anymore in the world. Especially, when there is no critical path or qualification for government officials other than celebrity and wealth.

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Fritz Pointer is a retired professor of English and African American Studies.  He is the vice president of Democratic World Federalists and has published numerous scholarly articles such as African Oral Epic Poetry: Praising the Deeds of a Mythic Hero (2013).  Being the older brother of the popularly known singing group, The Pointer Sisters, he has co-authored Fairytale: the Pointer Sisters’ Family History. Pointer’s main interests include combating racism, advancing human rights, ending war, eliminating nuclear weapons, and nonviolent solutions to global problems.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 25 May 2026.

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