Posted on 12/11/2025 11:55:15 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers, many have designated September 11, 2001 as the true close of the 20th century. That event indeed changed many things in the United States and in the world. It was a sign that the American-led global order established after World War II had become fragile and hollowed out. But in the decades that followed, our leaders clung to the pieties and perspectives of the pre-9/11 period, applying obsolete solutions in a new era with much different problems.
In retrospect, Donald Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign was the true start of the 21st century. He was the first political figure to offer a coherent account of where America had gone wrong – and the first to propose a genuinely different prescription for fixing the rot in our institutions. More than that though, he restored national pride to the center of politics. Approximately 80 percent of Americans said they were proud of their country in January 2001. By the mid-2020s, only 60 percent of Americans said they were proud of their country, with younger Americans being significantly less proud than their Baby Boom and Silent Generation elders. We cannot blame the precipitous decline solely on political polarization. Many Americans across the political spectrum believe both parties have failed to act in the best interests of the nation and its citizens.
On foreign policy, Republicans and Democrats share the blame. President Bush launched a global war on Muslim terrorists, which failed to achieve its stated objectives and gave rhetorical ammunition to our opponents. President Obama expanded Bush’s war through covert action, all the while traveling to Cairo, Strasbourg, Hiroshima and other international destinations to apologize for American power. Months before his messy and embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden declared in June 2021...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearhistory.com ...
I hope with all my heart that assessment is true.
If our country is to be saved, it has to start somewhere, and I do believe it has started under Trump.
Trump has definitively been the best president of many of our lifetimes. Not perfect, but we all needed a break from the GOP Establishment so we could see what it looks like to have someone interested in doing more than platitudes.
. “I have no vision for Europe,” Trump said on December 9, 2025. “I have a vision for the United States — America First.”
I always credited Regan for being the best president but Trump has surpassed Regan and is the best in the history of our country.
Trump is the best President of my lifetime - which started under Harry Truman.
Just too bad he had to ally himself with the GOP. They will destroy him in the end.
I don’t think either is ‘greatest’. They were both men for their times, and great for their times.
“He was the first political figure to offer a coherent account “
He was the first to build a coalition by effectively selling his personality. He was not the first to offer a coherent account...and in fact having Peter Navarro and Elon Musk (or Larry Ellison) in the same coalition gives a new meaning to the word coherent. Peter Navarro is very big government, anti-capitalist where most Republicans are much more capitalist and small government.
bump
The end began with
O’HAIR v. PAINE, 397 U.S. 531 (1970). September 11 was one of the consequences.
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