United States of America becomes disunited states

Cartoon by Ma Hongliang

The current political environment in the U.S. is literally chaotic. Shortly after the U.S. narrowly averted a 22nd government shutdown, it witnessed the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the subsequent prolonged elections to find a new one.

The chaos reflects the extreme political polarization of the U.S. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party engage in ferocious battles, while there is obvious polarization and fragmentation within each of the two parties. The New York Review of Books pointed out that America is already “a binational state” with the Republicans and Democrats leading two sharply opposed national communities that effectively operate as confederations under a single federal government. The United States of America has become the disunited states.

Obsessed with partisan conflicts, U.S. politicians have reached a point where they can hardly perform their duties properly. If they always put their own selfish interests above the interests of the country and the people, they will eventually lose the trust and support of the people, exacerbating the failure of "American democracy."