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--- politics:predictions:2025 [2025/03/17 19:30] – [Sub-prediction: The Future of MAGA] Owen Mellema
+++ politics:predictions:2025 [2025/03/18 13:32] (current) – [The End of Democracy: My Prediction in 2025] Owen Mellema
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 Consider this a warning about what might happen if we don't do better. If you read nothing else here, please read my conclusion.
-One more thing: I am a loose political centrist. It might seem that I am very critical of Republicans while being gentle towards the Democrats. It is true that I think that the modern Republican party is devastatingly bad. However, I am not loyal to the Democrats. Indeed, I have traditionally been quite critical of the illiberal progressivism of the so-called woke left. This was one of the major reasons that I supported Trump wholeheartedly in 2016 (the other being that I was young and foolish). I now see the truth: The threat of illiberal conservatism entirely eclipses the threat of illiberal progressivism. I won't make that case in this article, however.
+One more thing: I am a loose political centrist. It might seem that I am very critical of Republicans while being gentle towards the Democrats. It is true that I think that the modern Republican party is devastatingly bad. However, I am not a Democrat. Indeed, I have traditionally been quite critical of the illiberal progressivism of the so-called woke left. This was one of the major reasons that I supported Trump wholeheartedly in 2016 (the other being that I was young and foolish). I now see the truth: The threat of illiberal conservatism entirely eclipses the threat of illiberal progressivism. I won't make that case in this article, however.
-My allegiance is to America and the values that made this country, as Reagan described it, "a shining city on a hill".
 ====== Two Futures ======
 I foresee two futures:
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 ===== Why the Democrats will win in 2026 =====
-First, let me explain why I think Trump won. I don't think Trump won because people genuinely liked Trump. Instead, I think that Trump won for one very simple reason -- the economy was somewhat bad during some parts of Biden's presidency. This is not a political statement. I am not claiming that Biden enacted specific policies that caused the economy to be bad, I am simply claiming that it was bad at some parts of his presidency.
+First, let me explain why I think Trump won in 2024. I don't think Trump won because people genuinely liked Trump. Instead, I think that Trump won for one very simple reason -- the economy was somewhat bad during some parts of Biden's presidency. This is not a political statement. I am not claiming that Biden enacted specific policies that caused the economy to be bad, I am simply claiming that it was bad at some parts of his presidency.
 Wealth seems to be the single biggest predictor of well-being. People naturally want to exist in an environment where they can make a lot of money, and will vote to produce such an environment. I should point out, however, that average people seem to be very bad at evaluating how good or bad the economy actually is. A fascinating study showed that people on average thought that *they* were doing better than their peers financially, but that *most people* were not doing well. Obviously this cannot be true -- most people cannot be better than most people.
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 So what went wrong, that we developed this collective suicidal urge to dismantle our country? The problem isn't with the government, or some policy that was enacted, or some secret organization that's pulling the strings. The problem is //us//. We failed to keep the idea of Americanism alive. We became a country of people whose only relationship to it was that we lived here. We began to view our fellow countrymen less as brothers and more as obstacles on the way to wealth. We think as //our// rights as something we deserve, but of //their// rights as something that should be taken away if they make us uncomfortable.
-"If a black man is gunned down without cause in the street by police, who cares? I'm not black. Doesn't effect me. If they shot at white people, then I would care, but the police will always be on my side so I don't have to worry about that."
+"If a black man is gunned down without cause in the street by police, who cares? I'm not black. Doesn't affect me. If they shot at white people, then I would care, but the police will always be on my side so I don't have to worry about that."
-We have become a country of cynics, both in philosophy and action. We believe that man is completely rotten, head to toe, and thus we act completely rotten. We don't hesitate to kick our fellow man in the shins if we can slightly improve our standing -- after all, we reason, he would have done the same to us. This cynical philosophy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you kick my shins, then I'm going to kick your shins, and we'll all be kicking each other's shins for no real reason.
+We have become a country of cynics, both in philosophy and action. We believe that man is rotten, and thus we act rotten. We don't hesitate to kick our fellow man in the shins if we can slightly improve our standing -- after all, we reason, he would have done the same to us. This cynical philosophy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you kick my shins, then I'm going to kick your shins, and we'll all be kicking each other's shins for no real reason.
 Some people think that all of this is due to a decline of religion. While it is true that some religious people are very kind, altruistic, and civic-minded people, my anecdotal observations have revealed that religious people can personify the worst of this attitude. See, for instance, the rise of self-styled "christofascism" -- people calling for the extermination and brutal treatment of entire people groups with bible verses in their bio. Thus, I simply don't believe that making America a more Christian country will, in and of itself, solve this issue.
 My point is that you should be motivated to save this country. Yes, you should do this politically -- you should get out and vote, you should protest, heck, if it comes down to it, you might even need to fight for it. But you should also try to save the country non-politically, in your tiny, individualized way. Endeavor each day to treat your fellow man with respect and kindness. Outdo one another in love. That is how we begin to really heal the social fabric of this country.