The 19th century French diplomat Joseph de Maistre once wrote, “Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite”, or “Every nation gets the government it deserves.”

Maistre’s comment came following Russia’s new constitutional laws of the early 1800s, after the defeat of Napolean’s French invasion. Today Maistre’s 200-year-old quote applies to America.

Just a glance at the Democratic and Republican conventions says a lot about the rot that has overtaken the American political scene.

From plagiarized speeches to blatant lies, cover-ups to secret attempts by party heads to influence the outcome, America has fallen from a shining light on the hill to a laughing stock of its enemies.

In a nation almost evenly divided between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, the 2016 election campaign began with Americans presented with great choices on both sides.

Candidates with integrity and character offered their services to the nation, but a populace fed on a relentless diet of reality TV shows and gladiator sports chose the worst of both worlds, on both sides.

America’s conservatives and Republicans were offered the wise and sane former Florida governor Jeb Bush; the tried and tested conservatism of Sen. Ted Cruz and the youth of pragmatic, middle-of-the-road Sen. Marco Rubio. Also the respected John Kasich, who could have guaranteed a GOP win in the swing state of Ohio.

But when it came to the Republican base, they went for the erratic and unpredictable billionaire Donald Trump, who offered nothing, other than being the only candidate who was able to identify and name the scourge of Islamism as a threat to the United States, and his promise to build a wall on the Mexican-American border.

It wasn’t Trump’s programs or policies that won him the GOP ticket. It was the bankruptcy of the conservative base of the Republican Party, who saw the contest as a mud-wrestling match on a TV show, rather than as their responsibility to choose America’s next president.

On the other side were the liberals and the Democratic Party. What began as a shoe-in for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton ran into an unforeseen obstacle -- the remarkable Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

While Clinton came with the enormous baggage of shady deals involving foreign donors to her Clinton Foundation while she was still in office, Sanders appeared as the voice of America’s conscience.

Shamefully, the leaders of the Democratic Party tried to disrupt Sanders’ campaign.

Thanks to the Russians, we now know from WikiLeaks that party chair and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz was directly involved in the effort to sabotage Sanders.

Just like their Republican counterparts, liberal Americans refused to choose a candidate of character and integrity, instead choosing a woman who is known to have lied and risked the security of her country.

Enter the constitution-waving Khizar Khan at the Democratic convention and suddenly teary-eyed TV hosts treated the man as a saint for mocking Donald Trump, while commiserating with him over the death of his son in the war in Iraq.

Delegates lapped up Khan’s tirade against Trump, conveniently forgetting it was Clinton who had voted to send his son to his death in Iraq, not Trump.

TV commentators too failed to see Khan’s contradiction. Earlier at the Republican Convention they had ignored or treated with scorn Patricia Smith, whose son was killed in Benghazi, and who rightfully denounced Hillary Clinton for his death.

America deserves this circus because its citizens have chosen to be taken for a ride by political fools, media pundits and crooks.