This is the first installment by JOSHUA KEATING of “If It Happened There,” a regular feature on SLATE in which American events are described using the tropes and tone normally employed by the American media to describe events in other countries. 

WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 30: The sun sets on an uneasy capital.

WASHINGTON, United States—The typical signs of state failure aren’t evident on the streets of this sleepy capital city. Beret-wearing colonels have not yet taken to the airwaves to declare martial law. Money-changers are not yet buying stacks of useless greenbacks on the street.

But the pleasant autumn weather disguises a government teetering on the brink. Because, at midnight Monday night, the government of this intensely proud and nationalistic people will shut down, a drastic sign of political dysfunction in this moribund republic.

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