The US emerged from WWII as the top banana. Entering the war late, undamaged by the fighting and bombing domestically, except for the sacrificial lambs left to be liquidated at Pearl Harbor. The switch from making war materiel to building homes, cars and TVs was not materially difficult, so we were poised to provide ourselves and the Western world with all manner of consumer goods. Thus, for many decades the US reigned as top banana.

We went bananas buying second cars and second homes, and engaged in conspicuous consumption. We brought the era of classic movies to an end with TVs in every bedroom playing silly sitcoms and game shows with viewers ogling the already rich entertainment stars. The US is still sort of top banana, except that the peel of the banana is turning brown with the “browning” of the population, and the appeal of the US as a beacon of hope and democracy and doing the right/righteous thing is being peeled away by the deep state to reveal a government rotten at the core.

<...> Culturally, males in our society were becoming soft “bananas” without the toughness required to enforce traditional cultural norms.
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If even a small portion of these treasuries are redeemed at once, the US economy would quickly collapse — and yet the debt is increasing by 3 billion dollars a day. This is a situation that cannot or will not be corrected if your favorite candidate wins the next election. So we can now be called a banana republic.
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Only a very few who “go bananas” over this situation receive any attention, and then it is short-lived. If we see a banana peel in front of us, hopefully we can sidestep it. However the pathway ahead is covered with banana peels, but the populace pays more attention on individual agendas than where they are walking. We’ve reached that apathetic state that typically won’t turn around. The position of the top bananas is not perennial, and new and better top bananas will hopefully arise.