You reminded me of a funny segment in a famous George Carlin joke about religion. My apologies if you are a believer, please just take this as what it is: comedy.
"Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the résumé of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit you’d expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently-run universe, this guy would’ve been out on his all-powerful ass a long time ago."
This is the kind of thing I think about when I watch reality happen and compare it to the fantasies people construct about what we can actually accomplish these days. You are right, this has nothing to do with political party; each having its own maddening twists and turns.
We just can't get things done. Not just when it comes to a large scale. I have two personal examples.
First, our street, which is 25 years old (I've been here since the neighborhood was built) was repaved twice and, I am told, will be repaved again next year.
Why? Was it in bad shape?
Not even close. You could almost play pool on this street. It is, for most intents and purposes, perfect. There was no need to touch it.
The same is true of our sidewalks. Again, 25 years old. They were fine. They came through, jack-hammered about 50% of it (non-contiguos, of course) and re-poured it all. It looks horrible now, because, of course, they used a different color concrete and the work itself looks like shit (not the same quality and care, they patterned it a bit different, etc).
Why? To keep the union guys busy. That's the only reason I can find. I don't understand why they didn't send them to neighborhoods where this was actually needed. We have plenty of those in Southern California.
I was just in Singapore on business for a couple of weeks. The streets and highways on this tiny nation (~ 12 x 30 miles) make the crap we drive on in SoCal every day truly look like third-world worthy roads. And the taxes we pay for road maintenance are some of the highest in the nation. The roads in Florida are luxurious compared to our pot-hole ridden streets and highways.
The other story has to do with our schools. Years ago, when my kids were in middle school, they had a science teacher that was anything but that. He is a Chiropractor who works as a science teacher. This guy is clueless and verbally abusive. For example, he told the kids that the moon does not spin about its axis. If anyone questioned him, he would get angry. And that's just one example of many. Yes, he is still there. We could not get him fired or reassigned to basket-weaving class. There are kids coming out of that school who do not have parents with scientific training who come out believing all sorts of nonsense.
Why does this happen? Is it incompetence? Is it that our culture has devolved into something we should be ashamed of? I really don't know. What I do know is that countries like China are placing one foot in front of the other while, in the US, we can't do anything at scale, we waste time and money rebuilding streets and sidewalks that are just fine and we are causing our kids serious mental damage by teaching them absolute bullshit at every level.
Don't get me started about 20-somethings. I was just at the SxSW conference in Austin. I had a few very interesting conversations with 20-somethings who, in this case, actually had it together. A couple of the US. Most of the rest from other countries. The kids from the US gave me a perspective on what their peers are being taught and how they think that I honestly wish I did not have. To parrot George Carlin...
Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best the US can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the résumé of an advanced nation. This is the kind of shit you’d expect from a dictator with a bad attitude running a banana republic.
I am trying very hard not to be a pessimist when it comes to our future. I have to admit the results in front of me make it difficult to switch to a half-full view of the US. Frankly, in this environment, one can almost understand and justify the need for someone like Donald Trump. You actually need someone with enough power and an I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude to come in, rip this putrid system apart to the studs and rebuild it into something that actually works.
So, here we are, talking about installing billions of solar panels (made in China) and billions of batteries (made in China) and billions of inverters, cables, electrical components, etc. (all made in China) when we can't maintain our roads and stop teaching our kids bullshit.
This will represent the largest-ever transfer of wealth from one nation to another in the history of humanity. We will forever be dependent on China for almost everything if we continue down this path. These massive installations will require parts and materials, all coming from China. If the Chinese were smart --and they are, very much so-- they would carefully come up with a way to implement what I am going to call "sensible" failure rate on the products they sell us. This will guarantee millions of units per year in sales for replacement components in support of our wonderful power generation and distribution system...forever. It's like selling drugs to a drug addict.
This is one of the reasons for which I think of nuclear and wind as potential alternatives to solar (and I do like solar). I think the supply chains for these forms of energy can be constrained to the US, Europe and countries outside of China. I could be wrong, of course. I just think it is beyond stupid to send everything to China and not think strategically at all.
It reminds me of "Fire one million":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0mO6UY6uTg
(sorry, that was a bit of a rant)