A lot happened. Trump and his ilk being in power has uniquely facilitated an extended "masks off" period so the rest of the globe has repeated refutations of th

A lot happened. Trump and his ilk being in power has uniquely facilitated an extended "masks off" period so the rest of the globe has repeated refutations of the US's previous reputation as sometimes belligerent but mostly benevolent. That large swaths of the population could repeatedly openly support the corruption, the vulgarity, the cruelty, and the lawlessness of the administration revealed an unmoored civic/political process at best and underlying cultural and institutional rot at worst. In short, the US has revealed itself to have already declined to a point where it's no longer wise to allow it global hegemony. A dying Republican party, willing to do anything and everything required to remain politically relevant managed to dismantle 70 years of carefully executed foreign policy and unseat us as the global hegemon. From the inside, I feel the cultural rot runs deep, political tension is high even among family, and the institutional inertia will prevent us from making the necessary political reform (end gerrymandering, end legalized bribery, reform our voting system to eliminate the 2 party system) before violent internal conflict occurs.