To the author of the meme here, I respond:

Yes, all this is true.  But we must never forget that we voted for this, not once but twice.

Still, a full 30% of us support the lies, the stupidity, and the criminality, while our enemies are popping to the tops off of champagne bottles.  Russia took us down without firing a shot.  China is making its way toward world domination, largely because the United States committed suicide.

Fifty years ago, we were a reasonably well-educated and principled people.

Now, we’re a blend of greedy pigs and hateful imbeciles.

We have no one to blame for the implosion of America but ourselves.

It would be incorrect to say that literally no one saw this coming, but it took the overwhelming majority of the world by complete surprise.

Things Have Changed

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt makes an important point here, one that makes us wonder exactly how long it’s going to take to repair the damage that Trump has inflicted on our country.

Let’s say that the midterm elections shift the balance of power in congress and Trump is removed from power in the first half of 2027.  Perhaps this will happen on the basis of his senility, using the 25th Amendment. Or better, he’ll be impeached and convicted for any of dozens of the crimes he’s committed.

As much of the physical damage as possible will be undone, almost overnight.  No Trump names on public buildings.  Tariffs removed.  Science re-instated as the pillar of policy making and public health.  No more idiot sycophants in key positions. Iran and the U.S. (somehow) move back into the relationship we had before Trump’s asinine and illegal war.

The vast majority of Americans and virtually everyone else on Earth will breathe a huge sigh of relief.

But even if this happens swiftly, it will most certainly not make the “Trump phenomenon” vanish into the mist.  People all around the globe will continue to regard the former envy of the world as a nation of hateful idiots, and it’s likely that this perception, as many have suggested, will take a generation or so to lift.

Canadian PM Mark Carney is predicting that, given the implosion of the U.S., that a new world order is forming with Europe as its center.  Maybe “a generation or so” won’t get the job done.  Maybe American dominance is gone forever.

And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.  Imagine for a moment that billionaires didn’t control every facet of life here, and that our nation morphs into one that resembles the more enlightened places on this planet, where its people are well-educated and feel a distinct level of compassion for one another.

America’s Cultural, Moral, and Spiritual Decay 

As the U.S. crawls further into the woods of anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists, everyone living here encounters a variety of threats.

Rejection of Science Comes at a Cost