The death of Bush 41 made me think about how much the world has changed since he left office. Consider this:
- China was an economic minnow;
- The only tech giant was Microsoft;
- There were no social media;
- There were few mobile phones, and no smartphones;
- The GOP was still predominantly a reasonable center-right party, although danger in the form of Newt Gingrich was not far away;
- I don’t think Fox News existed;
- Russia was not a revisionist power, and was in a state of collapse;
- There was hope for peace in the Middle East;
- No one knew anything about Osama or Afghanistan, and Saddam was still holding on in Iraq; and
- There was no Uber, Airbnb, or Amazon.
Would you trade this world for that one? Would you give up the benefits of the internet for an America that was governed reasonably and dominated the world?Personally, I would.
The rise of China has been a positive for the Chinese, has had some benefits for us, and was in any case largely beyond our control, but the rest of the story of the last 26 years has mostly been about our mistakes, and the squandering of our inheritance. Trump is just the worst of it.