Wait a second. You said none of these things got better in any of your recent memory of the Presidency, but you’re also too young to remember Clinton? In the U.S.? So you must be my age or a bit younger, within 8-10 years. I was taught a lot of this in school. Well as a route 66 overview here are a few paragraphs in brief.

In that timeline our only presidents were Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. Clinton ended in 2001 ending with a surplus and extremely low unemployment, a trend which would continue for 2-3 years - and then Bush after his 8 years with a terrible response to natural disasters and the war led us into an extreme recession and deficit. Again. Which led to Obama’s first term having to deal with a housing crisis, banks, and businesses all crashing and being bailed out.

I was born in the latest of the millennials and I remember all this living through it, and was also taught about Clinton in school as well as Desert Storm and its effects so I am a little at a loss here. But I did graduate before Betsy Devoss was made secretary of education.

By the time Obama was done, despite all the wars (or maybe because of…) and a couple of natural and biological disasters we were on a lowered trend of unemployment, housing was still an issue but slowly working down, the effects of the recession were finally beginning to fade. Some states were even generating surpluses due to the certain taxing and legalization of a certain something, though not all of it was being properly utilized due to how the laws were written (still widely true today).

Then 2016 happened and we’re still recovering from the decisions made then on so many levels, from environmental protections and pollutant regulations, to literal repealing of women’s autonomy and right over their own body. For what, some COVID money, if you qualified? What a trade, a few thousand for taking multiple steps backwards.

And now we’re nearing the end of 3 years in on Biden. Remember how it took 2-3 years of lingering upward trend from Clinton to Bush? And how it took 2-3 years of recovery from Bush to Obama? That’s a common historical trend among pretty much all transitioning Presidencies where the lingering effects of the previous administration is seen and felt during the current one. It’s why generally 2 term (8 year) Presidents are able to be so effective, because unless there’s a political gridlock the 2nd term is generally able to make lots of headway on the campaign policy they ran on.

Trump managed his bout so poorly that even without COVID in Jan-March of 2020 his “2-3 year trend” from Obama was run into the ground in a very young 2 years due to the sheer number of aforementioned policy decisions (the removal of the EPA, the removal of the CDC branches, the removal of pollution regulations on corporations…).

Now here we are again, today, at the end of Trump’s 2-3 year trend. Still seeing the effects from COVID with businesses just barely beginning to show signs of recovering. Homelessness is still a massive issue with finally some minor strides being made in some areas but hardly overall. More than anything right now is the divide between political ideologies, if you can call human rights and health political. Double that divide due to the conflict outside of the U.S.

I would pay attention to this next year. And maybe get involved in local politics to find people passionate about making change within your community, it often gives you a wider sense of what people have felt. You’d also be surprised by the range of people you meet.

It’s also always fun to take some classes on government and political science, it can really highlight a lot of the systemic issues and historical trends, such as how conflicts between the police and black communities and queer communities from the 70’s and 80’s are still happening today. From the murderer George Zimmerman who shot and killed a young man Trayvon Martin to over a decade later the murderer Derek Chauvin who killed a man George Floyd by suffocating him for nearly 9 minutes while pinned to the ground. Back to 40 years ago when so many of the same stories happened in New York and so many other states, like Stonewall and the Miami Riot.

The reason I went in on all this is because despite many shortcomings, the answer is a clear, definitive, one side consistently props up all people and the other tears it away. Despite some states having their own positions (say, California or Texas) the effects are still strikingly visible, in these last 8 years it’s been a gaping tear and we have been living through the open wound. There are so many things to learn about but it’s important to remember that the most effective changes are made locally by being present in your community and by staying vigilant by making sure history repeats itself with positive reinforcements and not negative ones.