Our national decline is a reflection of trump's cognitive decline

[meadowlander]

5. It started long before Trump and will continue long after him.

Sorry, but I think it's a mistake to pretend that this is all about Trump and not a sustained 45 year long campaign by the right to demonize the left, to degrade American education and civic values, to shift all the benefits of society to the rich and all the costs to the poor, and to undermine democracy and the rule of law.

Trump is just the idiot waving a flag at the top of Shit Mountain but it was built for him by decades of deliberate acts by malicious actors and by a gigantic propaganda machine that never faces any accountability.

Long after he is dead, we will still be facing the same problem unless we address the spread of misinformation, stoking of hate and tolerance of corruption in our politics, and can agree as a country that we want to be good people who value empathy, tolerance, kindness, helping others, being a good neighbour, minding our own business, standing up for those less fortunate than us, etc.