The country's dysfunction is attributed not to its land, climate, water, air, or the inherent character of its people, but to the unwillingness or inability of those in charge to accept the personal responsibility and example that leadership demands. The problem is located squarely in leadership rather than in followers or circumstance.
Tribalism is defined as discrimination against a citizen because of their place of birth, so that a competent person is passed over for a kinsman, and this is identified as a corrosive national habit rather than mere cultural identity. It operates by substituting origin for merit in the distribution of opportunity.
Indiscipline is characterized as a failure to submit to the right order or to subordinate personal desire to the common good, visible from traffic chaos to institutional decay. It is distinguished from mere lawbreaking: it is the habitual inflation of the self at the expense of society's rules.
True patriotism is defined as an active, intelligent love of country that includes the willingness to criticize its failings honestly, while uncritical loyalty and the suppression of dissent are treated as the counterfeit version. A patriot who cannot be angered by national wrong is not being loyal but merely passive.