Background:
This column, On the Other Hand, began at The Hoot last semester as a successor to the Devil’s Advocate, written by the authors for The Justice from 2023-2024. The goals of both columns were the same: to take on difficult issues of importance in popular American discourse. On the Other Hand has debated a government shutdown, ranked choice voting (RCV), the capture of Nicolás Maduro, and the prospect of military intervention in Iran. The Devil’s Advocate debated congressional term limits, the filibuster, the ouster of US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the death penalty, federal abortion funding, candidate Trump’s constitutional eligibility for the presidency under the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, aid to Ukraine, pardons for then-President-elect Trump, court-packing, and—satirically—the law of gravity. We are grateful to The Hoot for providing our column a warm and welcoming home this past year.
Both of our columns were intended to provide impassioned stances on some of the difficult issues of our time, not for the sake of debate itself, but out of a deeper love of country, and both hope and fear for its future. In this final edition, we discuss that very subject, the future, presenting reasons for both pessimism and optimism as the United States enters its 250th year.
Reasons to Despair:
My co-writer and I have, for the last several years, made little secret of our thoughts on the incumbent presidential administration. However, it would be an incredibly daunting and likely disingenuous endeavor to place every single concern we have for the future at the feet of one individual. Much of this nation and the world’s tragedies—from the ongoing opioid crisis that has shattered countless American families, to the renewed genocide actively being committed against Darfuri people in Sudan—would still occur, unimpacted, in a universe in which Donald J. Trump remained an eccentric businessman forever. That said, in being the most consequential human being of the 21st century, the president has both caused numerous concerns that I hold about our future, and exposed many worrying issues that substantially predate his rise to power.
Broadly speaking, I believe that the rest of this decade will need to consist of picking up the pieces of what has been damaged by the incumbent administration. We must attempt to repair the Pax Americana, which has been handicapped by hostile acts towards historically reliable American allies. As a result of lapses in American support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, the European Union has been preparing a contingency plan for a world without American leadership. In light of threats against its sovereignty and a destructive trade war with the U.S., Canada has undergone a rapprochement with China. Due to the administration’s gutting of the PEPFAR program, hundreds of thousands of people on the African continent have died preventable deaths due to HIV/AIDS, prompting emerging regional actors to look elsewhere for allies. America has been set on an isolationist trajectory, and a lot of work will be needed to redirect America back to its status as the free world’s unambiguous leader. We will need to right the wrongs that have been committed against immigrants, both for moral reasons and to prevent the demographic labor curses that have afflicted the rest of the industrialized world. We will need to reckon with the breakdown of women’s reproductive freedoms and the elimination of civil rights protections for LGBTQ individuals. We will need to curb the deficit spending that threatens our economic future. And perhaps most importantly, we will need to combat the trend of democratic backsliding that is endangering the American republic. Addressing these issues will be difficult and require substantial political capital.
In other areas, President Trump can be described not as a source of problems, but instead as a symptom of underlying issues. The most worrisome concern of this type that I have is regarding political participation and polarization. In the 2024 presidential election, 36% of eligible voters opted not to go to the polls; in midterm and off-year elections, this proportion usually jumps up to more than half of the electorate, with young voters being the least likely to vote. At the same time, those who do engage in electoral politics in the U.S. are prone to maligning those who disagree with them; an estimated 72% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats believe that members of the other party are “immoral.” American politics is trapped in a destructive paradox: most Americans are either detached from the political decisions that nevertheless affect them greatly, or are divided and ruthlessly pitted against their neighbors who disagree with them. Neither of these phenomena is healthy in a democracy, and while polarization has become exacerbated over the last decade, it became a serious issue long before the current president won his first election. The disturbing lack of political participation, coupled with extreme polarization, poses an existential threat to our politics.
The day after the 2024 presidential election, a professor of mine—knowing I was unhappy with the results—told me that “every breakdown is a breakthrough.” He posited that one of the two plagues of modern politics would collapse and bring down the other: Americans, dissatisfied with the enshittification of our politics, would be inspired to become more civically involved. I want to believe this, and I always believe that there is a possibility for things to get better. I just don’t know what we need to do to come back from this place. We can always reaffirm our damaged geopolitical alliances, but it will take time to rebuild the trust that the Pax Americana was built on. With regard to polarization, the resurrection of the FCC’s fairness doctrine, which mandates unbiased coverage of contentious issues, is an oft-proposed solution. However, a new fairness doctrine would mean very little in a world where the internet and social media have created ideological echo chambers and peddled disinformation and fake news. I do believe in the end that this country will endure, if for no other reason because we have gone through far worse and come out stronger on the other end. But I do not know what it will take, except that it will be a monumental and grueling process.
Reasons to Remain Resilient:
On Sunday, April 12, 16 years’ worth of political justice caught up with a tyrant and brought his carefully, skillfully, brilliantly entrenched autocratic regime crashing down around him. Viktor Orbán, champion of the hateful brand of populism that swept the world’s far right, architect of a constitutional and electoral system designed to preserve and maximize his own power, was swept from it in a wave of popular discontent in his own rule and support for his opponent, Prime Minister-designate Péter Magyar. The fall of Orbán was the effect of years of impassioned strategy by Hungarians seeking to claw back the freedom cruelly stolen from them by a man who only cared to broaden his grip on power. And it was proof, moreover, of the power of hope, and the call of democracy.
In Budapest last year, I heard from political scientists, academics, and advocates for LGBTQ rights all too familiar with the fear and despair of desolate tyranny. All of them faced the ire of an autocrat and an establishment determined to undermine them. A year later, they, and their countrymen, toppled the tyrant. Viktor Orbán was the embodiment of all that far-right populists and democrats seeking promotion to autocrats had sought to become. Now, by virtue of the triumph of the human spirit, and the inadequacy of tyranny as a means of governance, at least for now, Orbán is gone.
Orbán was often called “the Trump before Trump.” His fall came when, in theory, after 16 years of solidifying his power, he should have been invincible. The implications should not be lost. In Hungary, Orbán built a state on fear and hate, and found it could only go so far. Already, as the midterm elections draw near, it seems evident that the American public is prepared to advance the same lesson, punishing an incumbent party unwilling to break with an unstable president.
Five years ago, we watched insurrectionists storm the heart of the free world. Today, their champion has returned to power. The rule of law is frayed. Partisanship is rivaled only by apathy. The digital divide has been further compounded by the difficulty of understanding the dangers of new artificial intelligence technologies. America’s place in the world has collapsed as even our close neighbor and ally, Canada, encourages fellow middle powers to move on from a U.S.-led world. And yet, there is cause for hope.
Every few decades, should we be so lucky, our country has endured intense bouts of division—think cultural battles of the Vietnam War, the Red Scares, the Civil War—and every time, eventually, the call of history has forced us to rise to the occasion. Today, a chaos-driven foreign policy has produced the abduction of a South American leader, a dramatic bombing campaign against a Middle Eastern state, and constant threats against U.S. allies who have heretofore proved themselves true with the sacrifice of their sons and daughters alongside Americans in battle. Tomorrow, the dust will settle. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will find himself in smaller company with Maduro, (Ali) Khamenei, and Orbán all swept away. American allies, with or without us, will strengthen and learn to trust each other more, bolstering the bonds of freedom hard-kept. One day, I hope, Americans will see again the promise of brotherhood at home and abroad. They will return not only to the tables of great power summits, but of their neighbors’ kitchens. But today, we must learn to hold fast to what makes us human, and unashamedly, to what makes us American.
This year, as Americans struggle to navigate uncharted technological waters, a ghastly job market, and spasmodic violence perpetrated by their government within our borders and beyond, we must remember that this country was not built on the shoulders of heroes of legend, but of flawed and ordinary individuals. And we must learn to forgive each other, trust each other, and move forward together. The new frontiers before us are blockaded by shadow, but they are, I truly believe, as bright as we choose to make them. As we enter our country’s 250th year, and as we conclude our column, I am reminded of the words of a man who once set our country’s course for the better.
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as G-d gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” – Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
Our best days still lie ahead, if we choose to make it so.
Qualifier:
On the Other Hand was a recurring column in The Hoot, which sought to promote critical approaches to the issues of our time and respectful dialogue. The arguments made therein should not be taken as the views of The Hoot and its staff, or even as those of the writers, unless explicitly stated. In this edition, Jack and Steve discussed the future of the United States, with Jack presenting a darker note, and Steve a more hopeful one. Now they bid farewell to you, the reader
