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I think you have a point. A lot of the executive overreach was stress-tested and normalized under prior presidents, and we’ve been delusional in how we teach “American plurality.” Meanwhile, in the background, a real pipeline was building: moral framing → institutions → policy. See the graphic.
USA is a corrupt and failing empire.
China has won the trade war.
Americans are fat lazy entitled and elected Donald Trump.
As the article notes the US Constitution was 'made only for a moral and religious people' but enough Americans today are corrupt and have voted for Trump and will get what he delivers.
There is no guarantee there will be an election when Trumps terms ends- anyone who argues that a transition is guaranteed is being willfully ignorant of what happened last time.
Agree it is not just Trump but the entirety of the US culture and people that are diseased.
A few decades or perhaps centuries of humiliation may restore some grit and integrity?
Articles like this move no one. Articles like this simply make people that already know what they think feel righteous or annoyed.
I would be absolutely shocked if the authors actually could tell a story explaining how the US got to the place it is today. They probably love Lincoln, FDR, and Obama. They likely have not considered the possibility if Paine came back from the dead in the middle of the Biden administration how appalled he would be at the abuse of power. How the Constitution had failed to restrain power.
Its REALLY easy to point to previous presidents use of executive orders, their moral failings, their foreign adventures. Trump is different. He doesn't feel the need to wrap his use of power in the veil of civility and international democracy.
My view is Trump is a product of the downfall of the US political system. Failure to actually realize the monster being created by the "two party" democracy. Failure of the decentralized design of these United States. The gradual centralization of power in the executive. The US government education system which attempts to indoctrinate the youth to idolize Lincoln, TDR, FDR, and Obama.
We didn't just wake up one morning and boom. Trump is a tyrant. Pretty sure if Harris had won and Paine rose from the dead he's be just as appalled at what it has all become.
I'm not a Trump apologist. He is what he is. He will leave the stage in the next few years one way or another and all the problems this article mentions will remain. They were there with Biden, Obama, and Bush. I heard them from one side in each admin.
It gets to be noise after a while. There are two (maybe more) Americas now. The sooner people come to grips with this the better. Either you will have what we have now, or we could have peace. I'm not confident that those that oppose Trump will leave the other half alone.
Many on the right really do want to be left alone. Plenty are busybodies like their opponents on the left but one thing that has happened is that many have realized that the system has become a monster and if you play by its rules you will always lose. This is one of many reasons for the rise of a strong man. I've said it for almost 10 years now. Trump is not the problem. He's the result of a much bigger problem. One that the vast majority of people aren't even thinking about.