Americas competence gap reveals a culture of failure but theres hope

America is facing a competence gap as both government agencies and private companies repeatedly reveal a laughable inability to perform their basic tasks.The Secret Service, whose multiple failures in securing former President Donald Trump’s July rally in Butler, Pa., are frankly hard to believe at this point, is one example.(Nor is the Butler event the Secret Service’s first embarrassment.)So is the US Navy, whose ships keep colliding and catching fire.American military engineers, who 80 years ago built entire floating harbors to support the D-Day invasion in Europe, now can’t install a workable floating pier in Gaza.  A federal program to build EV charging stations around the country is floundering. Nearly three years after legislation was signed to create 50,000 charging stations, only seven had been built — unimpressive results for $7.5 billion.Our military, foreign affairs and intelligence communities, which produced the disastrous Afghanistan skedaddle, have been repeatedly hacked by the Chinese government while failing to take decisive action against Iran’s terrorism or its nuclear program.Roads and bridges take forever to be built or repaired, new airports are nearly unknown, and the COVID response was extraordinary for its combination of arrogant self-assurance and evident ineptitude. Likewise, FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene was fumbling and slow, as was North Carolina’s.Even Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign — the one thing you expect politicians to get right — has been inept. Her first major executive decision, the choice of Minnesota Gov.

Tim Walz as her running mate, has been a bust, from his lies about his military record to his lackluster debate performance; and as revelations about his past continue to appear, her pick may turn out to be catastrophic. The political press is full of rumors of campaign infighting, and this weekend, Harris was actually mocked by “Saturday Night Live,” a rarity for a Democrat.And i...