What the historians will write…IF they are allowed
The first quarter of the 21st century in the United States of America was characterized by a socio-cultural and political divisiveness unrivaled by any other time since the American Civil War. Just as the Republic celebrated the dawn of a new millennium, the nation was sliding toward authoritarianism. This slow, halting, but inexorable slide was entirely perceptible to any well-informed observer among its citizenry. And, in fact, efforts were made to halt it. Unfortunately for the country’s democratic system of government, those efforts were no match for the unrelenting determination of the forces of fascism to subvert the system to their own ends. The Right’s control of the U.S. Supreme Court was crucial to this endeavor.
The new century dawned with one of the closest presidential elections in the nation’s history. The outcome came down to a single state, Florida. The parties litigated the issue of whether a recount of the votes should occur or not. The Supreme Court entered the fray and ruled in favor of the Republican candidate, George W. Bush. No sooner was Bush in office than the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, provided him and his right-wing colleagues with an excuse to launch a “War on Terror”, which facilitated their desire to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. The CIA facilitated this act of aggression by fabricating evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. By the time this lie was exposed, the invasion had occurred. Additionally, the “War on Terror” included many acts of torture and incarceration without due process of law. The Bush Administration’s attorneys concocted justifications for interrogation techniques that would be considered tantamount to torture in any civilized democracy.
On the home front, the Bush regime permitted the financial community to engage in irresponsible practices that lead to a dramatic increase in the nation’s billionaires and multi-millionaires, but resulted ultimately and inevitably in a financial crisis that is remembered as “The Great Recession.”
In 2008, the backlash to the Bush regime’s eight years of lies, unnecessary warfare, and financial piracy resulted in the election of person of color to the presidency. In one of the most remarkable and temporarily encouraging events of the young century, a candidate by the name of Barack Obama, whose father was a black African, won the election. Eight years of political sanity in Washington ensued. And one of the great legacies of the Obama presidency was the Affordable Care Act, which made healthcare accessible to millions of Americans. Remarkably, the Supreme Court did not declare the ACA unconstitutional.
Unfortunately, the Center-Left was unable to hold onto power in the 2016 election. Worse still, an egotistical and unscrupulous demagogue emerged and rose to power in the Republican Party. Donald Trump, a purported billionaire and sometime reality-TV star, lost the popular vote but won a majority in the Electoral College, enabling him to succeed Obama in the White House. Trump surrounded himself with right-wing radicals, such as a radio personality named Steve Bannon. The radical right was encouraged and many organizations, such as the Proud Boys, emerged from the shadows. In August of 2017, the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (ironically the hometown of the university founded by Thomas Jefferson) demonstrated just how bold, brazen and dangerous the radical right had become.
Although Trump was able to enact a tax cut that greatly favored and further enriched his wealthy supporters, he failed in his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act; handled the COVID-19 pandemic badly; enlarged the federal deficit dramatically, and in general came across to much of the nation as a buffoon heading a Keystone Kops administration. As a result, the oldest presidential candidate in the nation’s history, Joe Biden —-a former Senator and Vice President —- was able to unseat Trump. Not willing to concede defeat, Trump had his minions initiated dozens of frivolous court challenges to the election results. His efforts to upset a free and fair election climaxed on January 6, 2021 when, days before Biden’s inauguration, he encouraged his supporters to disrupt the counting of the electoral votes. The result was the first storming of the U.S. Capitol since the British burned it during the War of 1812.
The Republic held and Biden’s presidency was one marked by success in both the domestic and international arenas. Almost inexplicably, despite his highly successful presidency, Biden never enjoyed public approval ratings above 50%. Two failures marred the Biden Administration’s tenure in office: high inflation and massive illegal immigration. At the end of his term, Biden in November 2024 marked his 82nd birthday. In his June 2024 debate with Trump, who had managed to retain control of the GOP, he faltered badly.
The five months that followed this botched performance played out on the world stage like a Shakespearean tragedy. In 2023, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil trial in which the jury awarded the plaintiff $5 million. A year later, Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in a criminal trial. Notwithstanding these verdicts, he retained control of the Republican Party and was nominated as the party’s 2024 presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, despite calls for him to step aside in favor of a younger and more capable candidate, Joe Biden insisted upon running for reelection. His crushing defeat at the polls resulted in Trump’s control of all three branches of the federal government. True to his word, he surrounded himself with right-wing sycophants, pardoned the January 6th insurgents, and wreaked revenge on his political enemies. The most lasting legacy of his first term in office was the selection of three new Supreme Court Justices. Combined with three sitting conservatives on the court, his appointees enjoyed a six-justice majority. On July 1, 2024, this majority ruled that in the performance of his official duties, the President of the United States enjoys absolute immunity. Taking full advantage of that immunity, and controlling both houses of Congress, Trump proceeded to repeal the Affordable Care Act; enact a national ban on abortion; withdraw from NATO; abandon Ukraine to Putin; crush what little remained of private-sector organized labor; further enrich his wealthy supporters; and gerrymander congressional districts across the country to disenfranchise Democrats and people of color, further debilitating the Democratic Party, and ensuring Republican right-wing ascendancy for decades to come.
Perhaps the most tragic figure in this national tragedy was former-president Joe Biden, who left office on January 19. 2025, and lapsed into senility, not living long enough to see what his egotistical insistence on seeking a second term did to the nation he had served well and faithfully for a lifetime.
