I am supposed to be looking backwards on days like this, so I will. I am using the council of foreign relations website as a significant source here, so make sure to fact check my work. I want to make sure I spend ten minutes talking about how it was and not how I felt. The difference matters. We are living in an era of feelings triumphing over facts and lies that support said feelings. The saga of the The Fitzsimons Place apartments at 1568 Nome Street in Aurora, CO led to all sorts of lies about gangs overrunning peaceful areas. It is worth noting that the alleged criminally controlled complex was shut down in August following a march 2023 complaint of poor living conditions (not gang violence). It is worth noting as well that the footage prompting the reports of a gang takeover were recorded on a ring security camera from a neighbor who was neither taken over nor harmed.
But this is about looking back.
The main argument that I hear from voters is: We are not better than we were 4 years ago. Well, are we better than we were 4 years ago? According to financial exports reporting through Forbes magazine, yes. However, that is not even a realistic question. Of course we are! 2020 was defined by Covid. Our experience of that time is locked behind a lot of politics, sadness, and fear.
So lets go back further: 2017 was a lot. It was the first year of the Trump presidency and in the USA it was a mess. Lots of uncertainty about how to get things done and as a result, lots of people getting him to sign stuff that was part of their agenda–not his. He didn’t know what he was doing. He expected to win, not govern… Of course, that is all my opinion. What are the actual facts? Well, we know the economy continued to grow, following the IMF predictions at +.5%. So we can argue that Trump is responsible for the the extra half percent of growth. We can also argue that Trump’s June 2017 proclamation that the US would leave the Paris Climate Agreement had a devastating impact on those accords and thus on the future climate (which we are dealing with now). Xi Jinping also rose, while blatantly exploiting international trade rules. Trump applauded him. Called him King of China. Thus we have established our present situation with how China feels about our ability to hold them in check.
I have several years to go, but that is ten so… next time.