It took 250 years to build what Trump is trying to undo

Tbf, it's been in decay since Reagan. Long time coming to get here. Trump was inevitable when we didn't address inequality, lowered taxes on the wealthy, and allowed Citizen's United.

Pfft. 250 years to build it. Trump would have built it in 3 tops. Nobody builds a county like him. He’s the best country builder person. Everyone says it. You guys are just jealous or something.

"Trying" lol

(he's succeeding btw)
- This could be the first time he's ever been successful (unless you count bankrupting casinos, and other 'businesses' a success...?)

To quote the Beastie Boys.
It takes a second to wreck it
It takes time to build
And with this fat fascist, there is no chill and we're all fucked.

He's not "trying to undo" it. He's largely already undone it.
He has done permanent and irreversable damage to our relationships with our allies around the world. Countries like Denmark and Canada now have to look at us as potential adversaries as we repeatedly threaten to use military force to annex their territories.
He has obliterated our ability to maintain strong political and economic ties. Sure, with every administration comes tweaks to various foreign and economic policies, but American policies in general have been considered stable and reliable over the long term. Countries now believe, and have every right to believe, anything the US says only has a shelf life of 4 years before the next administration comes in and flips the table on a whim, and that anything Trump says only has a shelf life of until he has a conversation with someone else and randomly changes his mind. Businesses and governments can't be expected to function under those conditions, and it is going to take us decades at best to show the rest of the world that Trump and MAGA were just short blips on the radar and that the US can once again be trusted in the long term. That's assuming we ever get that trust back.
Even domestically, how many collective centuries of experience has been purged from federal government operations as a result of Trump's mass firings? Even if these agencies were re-opened and fully re-staffed tomorrow, how long would it take them to wind things back up and get back up to full strength? If they're re-instated after the Trump administration, how much damage would be caused in the interim, and how many years or even decades will it take to fix it? How much data that these agencies relied on has already been permanently lost?
How many years of scientific research has already been destroyed as time-sensitive experiments and studies get cancelled due to de-funding? Again, even if these institutions would be able to restart work tomorrow, how many experiments have already been invalidated in the interim? How many years are we now going to be behind in scientific research?
Same goes with vaccinations. Environmental damage. Race relations. The list goes on and on and on. What he has already destroyed in four months will likely take four decades to repair.
- Along with all this, he has undermined trust in systems that were largely held together by trust. How many times were we taught about the "checks and balances" built into the system, only to see they're ultimately a facade. The court rules against an action the president takes, but they can't actually enforce it. The president overules congress's power to write the budget, but they can't actually stop him.
  All checks and balances required a faith in the system working along a myth that was created. Not that myth has been shown to be false and there's no going back. It'll take serious amendments to the constitution to repair, or a new one altogether. I don't think either of those are happening in the current political climate though.
  So yes, he's done a lot of harm externally, but also internally.
  
  I don’t even see how modifying the constitution can even help. It already makes so many of his actions illegal. It’ll always come down to whether someone can enforce the law: but what happens when they’re complicit?
  One of the reasons the checks and balances myth was so compelling is that it didn’t even rely on ethical or responsible leaders. Basic human emotions like greed, ego, and lust for power, so prevalent in politicians, should have compelled them to protect their turf. Not only is Congress full of corrupt, spiteful racist traitors fully complicit, how does their base nature not make them stand up and say “the power of the purse is mine”
  
  To be fair, this is a problem that has always existed with our Constitution. The Constitution gave us a framework for government and rules to abide by, but its fatal flaw is that it said exactly nothing about what to do when someone breaks those laws. The entire document is basically little more than a glorified gentleman's agreement. There's nothing in the document that says what to do if those elected to support and defend the Constitution instead decide to take a shit on it.
  If anything, we should consider ourselves lucky for a couple of things. One is the fact that it took 250 years for someone to realize that our Constitution has absolutely no teeth to it and the answer to the question of "What are you going to do about it?" is effectively "Nothing." The other is that the first person to go down that path is an inept moron. Now granted, the man has still done permanent and irreparable harm to our country and our standing in the rest of the world. But imagine the damage the man would be able to do if he were competent. Imagine if Trump had the political savvy and intelligence of Mitch McConnell. We'd be in a fuck of a lot more trouble.
- Even if these are restored, the spell has been thoroughly broken.
  Trump has shown that the supposedly sacred institutions intended to protect democracy absolutely disintegrate the first time a 3rd rate dictator shows up and knocks them down.
  Trump has shown that the office of the presidency itself can be obtained by the most dipshit motherfuckers imaginable.
  Trump has shown that our electorate is hilariously unqualified for the responsibility of choosing our elected officials.
  Rebuild everything, and what are we left with but a system that is utterly incapable of protecting itself against fascism? How in the absolute fuck can we ever be expected to respect the office of the presidency again after seeing that the absolute worst among us is capable of achieving it?
  At this point, I think people are just hoping that the next election will restore the illusion. But for a lot of people, the perception of what this country is will be forever compromised.
- They shut of the systems that kept research cell lines alive and viable. Those cell lines are gone. There is no replacement. Knowing this, in retrospect we should have have cell lines located in many locations, not just one. I can't stand it. This is 'crimes against humanity' level of action by this administration.
  
  Could you (or someone else here) expand on what that means? What were these cell lines used for on more concrete terms?
- it is going to take us decades at best to show the rest of the world that Trump and MAGA were just short blips on the radar
  The fun part is we don't have decades. We're already at +1.7C. Insurance actuaries are predicting 4 2 billion deaths worldwide at +2C. We will literally never recover from Trump.
  
  I'm gonna need a source on that.
- Honestly you couldn't have been more on the nose. Trump has harmed the world in deep and foundational ways. Mostly involving trust and good will

There is far too many "won't" "can't" "it's over" "he'll never leave" and not enough "Let's make him leave" going on if you ask me.

As an African American, those 250 years of building was never for us, so while I'm happy that our unjust systems are crumbling under their own weight of stupidity. I wish it was being properly dismantled brick by brick from the left opposed to knocked over by what appears to be two elderly men with clearly anti social sociopathic and toxic masculinity, driving a triangle shaped truck that struggled to drive up a curb. The wall has just fallen on top of the poor, POC, and LGBTQ+ community. And the capitalist are going to just see the heep of bodies and bricks as a new road to drive over.
- There’s also a more optimistic view: while I appreciate running through life in hard mode, I’d still claim a lot of progress. The situation may suck, but it used to suck more.
  In every dystopian society collapse sci fi, there is more oppression, more bullying and violence against “others”. Be careful what you wish for: things may suck but they can always suck more. I don’t think an apocalypse will give you a break
- Yeah, but even the left or more specifically the Dems are still complicit in the shit show we are seeing now. I really don't want Trump in office under any circumstances, so I'm not saying to vote for him because Dems are shit too. They are definitely a much lesser shitty side.
  The main issue is people are greedy. This goes back to the beginning of time. This is why history repeats itself. Just look at Rome and what Julius Caesar did. I feel like that is Trump now.
  And then the Senate during that time was the same. Rich goblins leeching on society. This is a fight against the rich and against the people that take way more than what they need. Their bellies are full and yet they keep eating. This is why slavery was a thing and to make themselves feel better they used racism to call people with darker skin color than their own, monsters. People are fucking sick.
- Similar sentiments here. I'm a trans and PoC immigrant, this country was never for me. I'm glad it's collapsing, I just feel sad for the good people who have to live through it.

Trump is anti-American
- Trump is only pro-Trump
  
  It's weird that a lot of people don't see this. They'll say "Oh, Trump is doing this thing because he likes this group" or whatever but it's really that he's doing the thing because he thinks it will benefit him in some way, usually monetarily.
- Trump is anti-humanity
  
  certainly anti civilization

His neck line is so much funnier in a silhouette

...there's no trying, man, it's already undone...

From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.
Will Durant 1885-1981. American writer, historian, and philosopher.

Especially the last hundred years since ww1 and the last 150 since yellowstone became the first national park and started a system greatly expanded and championed by a republican president. Of course the post office is from the dawn of the country and a mark of any real society. Certainly more so than some stupid parading of military crap.

Lmao. Why do people still think the US in its pre Trump form was this great achievement? There was never anything unique or exceptional about the US. Trump was inevitable specifically because of how flawed the US is and was. The american people has never been interested in participating in democracy, it was always run by frauds and it was just a matter of time until someone figured out how to abuse that situation for something other than the typical shit that corporations have been abusing it for.
- Wrong. There was one thing truly exceptional about the USA: the best propaganda the world had ever seen. Certainly the most effective.
  
  It was always crazy to me when i met refugees who made it to Europe, that dreamed of eventually going to the US. This stupid myth that you can get stable work or even rich if you just work hard in the US has been believed for way too long.

And there's no chance of ever getting pre-Trump America back. You guys voted for this. Twice.
Actions have consequences, and you're in the "found out" phase.
- "You guys voted for this. Twice."
  Why pretend the election was legitimate? It was not. This has been openly admitted.
  
  Yes, Trump has said publicly several times that he would not have won if the elections weren't rigged.
  That said, he didn't fabricate tens of millions of votes.
- There is no non-Trump America. He will never leave now.
  
  He isn't going to live forever, thankfully.

Wrong. It took the revolution, and it has been decaying since

What’s lost can’t be restored any time soon. Pretending constitution and democracy can still come back in our life time is just self delusion and waste of everyone’s time.

No shit. So many of us have been saying this for well over a decade

That’s good. Our government has become so corrupt and incompetent it needs destroyed and rebuilt.
- Revolution sounds better and better.
- So do it.
  
  like a coalition?

Reminder: the republicans in your life should be ostracized. For starters.
- I have not spoken with my father in 6 months. I spent the previous 10 years, since I moved back to my home town, trying to bring him back from the crazy.
  
  Sorry to hear it. Good luck.

It is always easier to destroy than to build, or to protect.

I said similar on another article like this, but I worry the kind of people who need to know this won't read it. They'll just dismiss it because "cnn is woke" or "they just don't like trump" (which reminds me of the "missing missing reasons" post about estranged parents, incidentally)
But maybe a few fence sitters or accidentally-low-information types will read this and realize trump is not the way to go.

If something like that can be easily be undone, then either it wasn't anything or the people who made it didn't try very hard to secure it.
- There are lots of locked doors. Each door has one key, and one key master (forgive the phrase). A single person cannot enter every door on their own. This is a good system.
  However… if the key masters can be convinced to re-key their door with the same key, then anyone who has one key has them all.
  The system failed when the key masters became corrupt and/or lazy. And the country failed when we saw it happening and did nothing.