The lost decades

23 January 2025

The “lost decades” refers to the time needed to restore the United States to its condition in November 2024 (or January 2025), before Trump’s likely calamitous Presidency. We won't be making progress - we will be limiting Trump's destruction and then slowly returning to the status quo.

Based on Trump’s past actions and current statements and actions, I predict a global recession / depression and war or the threat of war, not just with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea but between the United States and our traditional allies. Our fights against climate change, political corruption and authoritarianism will go backward, as will our work to support women’s rights, civil rights and environmental protection. The U.S. population will shrink or grow less than before and our life expectancy will decrease.

As long as Trump is in power or alive, which may be another 10-15 years, I predict there will be daily chaos and degradation of Western civilization until Trump dies because he is so dominant in the world, even though he appears to many of us to be insane, unstable and evil. In the interim, we should try to limit the damage he does by fighting back.

Once Trump is gone, and assuming his followers cannot continue his policies, we can start to repair the damage he and his followers have caused. The most obvious tasks will be reversing Trump’s policies causing: war(s), economic downturns, damage to democracy, increased bigotry, worsening of climate change, environmental degradation and reduced U.S. life expectancy and population growth.

We will also have to repair the institutional damage that Trump caused. As Heather Cox Richardson notes, “For the past two days, the new Trump administration has been demonstrating that it is far easier to break things than it is to build them.” Restoring America from the Trump disaster will require:

• Replacing the experienced and expert government staff that Trump fired or who left their agencies. This will also require building back confidence that the Federal government is a good place to work.

• Restoring our belief in democracy, democratic institutions, the Constitution and the moral and ethical values that built this country but that Trump and his followers have eroded.

• Reducing the influence of the agents of hate, including Fox, other right wing media and some social media.

• Most likely we will need to establish a new conservative party whose leadership actively rejects Trumpism but supports the Constitution and democratic values.

Our task is to become more engaged in repairing our country and the world, and although “It is not your duty to finish the work, neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”

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The index to my prior essays (mostly post 5 November 2024) is here.

I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.

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