2025, the decade that was

Sayonara 2025: It was quite a decade.

The year that started in 2015—the year trump entered politics and Americans demonstrated that they didn't grasp the concept of public office. They thought it was a television show.

A very bad television show.

Some argue Americans were confused. They mistook reality television for reality itself, and figured why not turn reality into a TV show? I predicted The Trump Show jumped the shark on January 6, 2020. Boy, was I wrong.

Americans opted for a sequel in 2024. And we all know how bad sequels are. 

Trump’s was way worse.

By many accounts, 2025 became the most violent year in American politics since the 1960s. In the first half of the year alone, roughly 150 politically motivated attacks were recorded—nearly double the same period in 2024. The tone was set the year before with two assassination attempts on trump. That was followed this year with the killing of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and then the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. There was also an arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence, and a shooting at the CDC headquarters—thankfully limited to property damage.

I don’t think this is a red or blue problem—though statistically, vastly most political violence until this year came from the right. I think when regular politics fails, people take matters into their own hands. And politics is clearly failing in the United States.

Trump bears direct responsibility for ginning up the violent rhetoric—the Destroyer in Chief. But the deeper cause of his return is the collapse of politics itself.

During Trump Show - Season One, he was still learning the role. He performed a clumsy song-and-dance about putting his businesses in the hands of his idiot children and hadn’t yet figured out how to properly monetize the Oval Office. He settled for diplomats staying at his Washington hotel and selling merch to his cult followers. Petty larceny.

This season, he’s gone big. Threatening titans of industry and world leaders with illegal tariffs as a protection racket to funnel billions into his crypto ventures. Trump has no reason not to treat the presidency like a tawdry one-night stand with an under-aged, starry-eyed model or a former porn actor. He’ll be leaving town soon enough.

But trump’s re-election was enabled by the feeble, inept, and criminally underappreciated Joe Biden. Biden’s core flaw has always been that he’s old school. That worked during a pandemic, when Americans craved normalcy. But a return to normalcy only reminded them how bored and miserable they already were.

Biden never grasped that the rules had changed. Americans wanted to be entertained more than they wanted a semi-functional government. Harris suffered for the same reason. Biden and Harris didn’t just alienate Republicans and Independents—they put Democrats to sleep in 2024.

How do I know? Two words: Zohran Mamdani.

The avowed democratic socialist proved political labels barely matter anymore—something trump obliterated back in 2015, along with the Republican Party. The surprise New York mayoral race showed voters were fed up with both the tired old guard (Cuomo) and the pro-trump corrupt guard (Adams). They wanted a young, sharp face with some nerve, regardless of ideology.

Democrats had better get the message for 2028: People want something new.

America has shifted from a country on a mission—confident, disciplined, and forward-looking after World War II—into a spoiled, bored, whiny, entitled brat that takes everything for granted. Trump was the perfect avatar for that transformation.

Fortunately, it appears Americans are beginning to recognize what they re-elected—thanks in part to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal—and they don’t like the reflection staring back at them.

The next three years will be rough. An easy prediction to make. Trump is effectively a lame duck. Democrats will retake the House. There will be corruption probes, cover-ups, and hearings galore. Trump will howl and snarl like the wounded, cornered dog he is. One can only hope he doesn’t drag America into a war with Venezuela, a plotline twist for his flailing show. 

Looking ahead to 2028, Democrats have a simple task: nominate someone who knows how to manage the bored, rude, entitled child America has become. Entitled children are miserable. They lack boundaries, respect, and consequences. Sound familiar?

According to my sources (read: the internet), there are a few ways to deal with them:

1. Simple, clear, ambitious messaging: Articulate what America stands for. Not a policy menu—a vision. Democrats haven’t offered a compelling national vision since the 1960s. Biden-Harris demonstrated that policy talk is the refuge of those with no vision. An entitled child desperately needs direction.

2. Expect more, encourage accountability, not dependency: Lower expectations and Americans will always oblige. JFK had it right - don’t tell Americans what government will do for them, tell them what they will do together. Set bold goals with deadlines. We will go to the moon by the end of the decade etc.

3. Model respect, show that character is strength: Entitled children suffer from a deficit of meaningful attention. They prefer abusive attention to none at all—Trump in a nutshell. The antidote is leadership grounded in character: integrity, honesty, respect, authenticity, discipline, kindness and generosity. And a little charisma would help.

America doesn’t need another show. It needs a grown-up.

[Side-note from the Canadian hinterland. We were no exception to the entitled child rule. We had Trudeau and were on course to elect the whiny spoiled child of Canadian politics Pierre Poilievre until trump's reelection slapped us out of our stupor. The threat to our sovereignty from the south restored our sense of national purpose and we responded by electing the grown-up we needed. America might learn something from us for a change.]