Did the Obama era mark the beginning of the US's downward spiral?

[ForevrLonely29]

Everything held together decently well until around 2008. After that, it seemed like everything was a death spiral from there.

The whole "Politically Correct/PC Police" and "Social Justice Warrior" movements became obnoxious during the Obama era. Censorship and social engineering was running rampant. The race card became the norm when opposing leftist policies. Identifty politics was a weapon often used. This is around the time my family split due to political differences. Holiday and family vacations seized during this time. Socialism became the dreaded and heated topic in the US. My father lost his job and was unemployed for 6 months during this time, causing immense fear of losing everything. This is the time when my immediate family fell apart. This was a terrible time.

The Trump era became a glimpse of hope and some normalcy began to return, but the biased and aggressive media was mercilessly attacking Trump at every angle. Meanwhile the economy was looking more optimistic and the social atmosphere was beginning to improve, then the COVID era struck during Trump's last year in office, placing the nation in a near standstill.

Then, the terror resumed under the Biden Administration and we saw a return of the Obama era disasters that plagued this nation once again.

I don't believe Trump quite fixed the extensive damage under Obama, but there were improvements that brought about hope. I don't know if the US will return to pre-Obama normalcy, but this death spiral needs to stop and fast before we are in an all-out civil war.

Yes

No

[BCA6010]

How far back are you willing to go? The US's modern problems can be traced at least as far back as Woodrow Wilson, with significant contributions from FDR and Johnson. The common denominator is a massive expansion of the federal government, usually sold as a lie beforehand.

If sticking closer to modern era, I would actually argue that either the passing of the Patriot Act in October 2001, or the media shift/identity politics propaganda that occured in 2006 (and hasn't really stopped since) is where the course was set, in either case during the Bush administration. It wasn't until the Obama administration that government abuse really took off, but even then, things like the spy and assassination programs were already there, just smaller scale and under different names, and not being used against domestic political rivals.

[Goahead76]

I've often wondered what years marked the real tipping point but I don't really factor in the President too much since they really are just kind of temporary employees. The mannequin in the storefront I often say. I think the permanent Washington leviathan is really what's out of control. Otherwise I think you speak for a lot of people who saw a little hope in a populist leader only to watch them ferociously go after him with impeachment after impeachment after impeachment as well as two assassination attempts. The truth is they really hate populism because they see it undoing the US empire as every European vassal state goes the way of Brexit. They see that as the unraveling of the empire and cannot be allowed, so therefore all populist leaders have to be stomped out. Stupid world we live in...

[Anonymous]

No the Bush administration. That's where everything started to go wrong. The war in Iraq which we are still paying for 20 years on, the economic crash which we are still paying for, war in Syria, war in Yemen, war Libya, covid, war in Ukraine, war in the holy land all of which the taxpayer has to pat for.

[Opinion Owner]

... obamacare too.

[ForevrLonely29]

I know your profile indicates you are fairly young. I don't know if you remember the early-to-mid 2000s. This was the more blissful period before everyone lost their fucking minds. Besides 9/11, the war going on in the middle east, and Hurricane Katrina, growing up during that time still was not nearly as bad. Things were still fairly affordable and people had decency and manners. Kids actually played outside too and socialized.

[Opinion Owner]

You asked for the beginning of the downfall. That was the beginning and over the last 24 years it's just gotten worse with each year.

[exitseven]

Yes, it is now okay to hate the cops. The US is an evil empire. We should all be ashamed to be Americans. You cannot say Merry Christmas and black people need to get reparations.

[ForevrLonely29]

That is the impression I have been getting from the extremist left. It is terrible.

[exitseven]

Yes, and it will not change until we get a top to bottom change in not only out leadership but our attitudes.

[Anonymous]

I like to think that it started under Bush 43 because of all the billions or trillions of dollars that was wasted on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that no doubt contributed to damaging the economy

[Anonymous]

Obama sucked--don't get me wrong. But W did no favors to the country and left it a fair bit worse of than when he started.

[ForevrLonely29]

I was just a child at the time, but learning about the Bush administration, there were some shitty things such as passing legislation to spy on ordinary American citizens and the increased regulation on education, which is most certainly federal overreach. I think society as a whole was still very chill and patriotism was running strong, especially post-9/11. I can fairly see why people claim the Bush administration got the ball rolling for this nation's downwards spiral. I just noticed a social collapse moreso under Obama where leftist extremists were emerging and became militant-like.

[Opinion Owner]

Oh for sure, that happened. But the domestic spying set the stage and the culture for Obama's later weaponization of the government against political opponents. And the economic damage caused by the disastrous execution of the War on Terror set the stage for the financial crisis and the explosion of the welfare state. So I'd say the beginning of the downward spiral started with W and was accelerated by Obama. Honestly, I think it took a bit of a breather with Trump. It didn't get much better though. It certainly wasn't helped by the Covid response that started with Trump. And of course it's really accelerated over the Biden administration.