We had our chance to course correct, and didn't. And I suspect dems are either going to learn nothing and flop the next election, literally get suppressed by Trump, or get their own version of a "liberal Trump."
Our social media is only going to get more toxic now, and it’s already dominating public discourse.
I dunno where you live, friend, but do not assume the US is digging its way out of this hole :(
Were you making the assumption that the US had a good reputation before that ?
Half of the world hated it outright and the other half was mostly just playing along because of its economic or military power and propensity to behave like a bully.
The only difference is that Trump is too stupid to do it quietly.
Every coalition will involve the CDU/CSU (our conservatives) as the senior party. And their candidate for chancellor is already copying Trump talking points about closing the borders, getting rid of immigrants and cutting social services.
Even without the extremist right it's going to be an absolute shit show.
No way that is ever happening. We are a dying empire, rotting from the inside out. Because of a massive amount of inertia, the decline is really only starting to become obvious widely, but we are well into the phase where the ruling class has given up and is just looting the carcass before it hits the ground. They have succeeded in distracting the general public from the dire circumstances for a long time, but things are so far gone at this point, that won’t really be necessary much longer. As we proceed to give up on democracy, the efficacy of political influence withers away. The real danger for the world is that we have a massive military infrastructure ready to lash out in increasingly desperate spasms as the organism desperately tries to prolong agency. It is past time for the world community to organize against the threat the US poses to them. This is just getting started.
The US has military installations in 55 countries, I'm afraid that very soon, they'll turn on the people they promised to "protect." Total global shakedown. Just like the American oligarchy will have no qualms about further dismantling public infrastructure and driving wages and living conditions of their own populace down into bare survival mode if it means they can become trillionaires. Plus, poor and desperate people make good soldiers.
Even if sanity is restored next election cycle, I think at this point no one will ever trust us again knowing that in 4 years there’s a huge chance all hell will break loose again.
Until the next insurrectionist fascist rapist turns up. They seem to like them over, say, having to make difficult choices over there. Except that the choice wasn't even that difficult to begin with.
The US will be spending the next several decades building their reputation back up antagonizing the rest of the world hard for even the tiniest short-term gains of its ruling class, kowtowing only to China.