Will Trump 2.0 transform America? Unlikely.

Louis T. March

January 20, 2025 6 Reactions

Bleak horizons

Facts back him up. Psychiatric Times reports that “the suicide rate in the United States recently reached its highest peak since 1941. The provisional number of suicides in 2022 was 3% higher than the final total number of suicides in 2021.”

And here’s what CNN has to say: “There were 55 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age in 2023, CDC data shows, fewer than any other year on record… The US fertility rate has been trending down for decades, with particularly steep dips after the Great Recession of 2008.”

A higher percentage of the US population is single and childless than is married with children. America’s fertility rate is almost 1.7, 20 percent below replacement level.

Also, “The share of US 30-year-olds who are actually living an adult life has collapsed over the last four decades.” Check out this chart – the rates of marriage, home ownership and living with children have collapsed since the 1980s:

The share of US 30-year olds who are actually living an adult life has collapsed over the last 4 decades. pic.twitter.com/1dq3jU2wCU

— Alf (@MacroAlf) January 2, 2025

And here’s the grim story on abortion from Yahoo News: “Abortions are becoming slightly more common now than before Dobbs. There have been slightly more monthly abortions across the country recently than there were in the months leading up to the June 2022 ruling, even as the number in states with bans dropped to near zero.”

Illegal immigration has made the US a magnet for criminals. The notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is now active in 18 states. Crime is a mechanism of social revolution and has changed the way millions go about their daily lives. Could the public one day come to embrace a police state to restore law and order?

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World scenario is upon us. Canadian film-maker Denis Villeneuve offered some insight in a recent interview:

We behave like AI circuits. The ways we see the world are narrow-minded binaries. We’re disconnecting from each other, and society is crumbling in some ways. It’s frightening.

There’s something addictive about the fact that you can access any information, any song, any book. It’s compulsive. It’s like a drug. I’m very tempted to disconnect myself. It would be fresh air.

And as for sexual morality: “More than 795,000 people were listed on state sex offender registries as of August 2024. Since 2019, the number of registered sex offenders in the U.S. has risen by nearly 43,000, or around six percent.”

To complete the list of civilisational threats, secularism is making great strides:

Young Americans ages 18-29 have dominated the growth in the religiously unaffiliated category over the past four decades, but the percentage of those in this age group who are unaffiliated has remained stable around 34–38% since 2016. However, as the cohorts age, the growth in religiously unaffiliated Americans has started to show up more in the 30-49 age category, which is up to 32% unaffiliated from 26% in 2016. The 50-64 group has seen a smaller bump, with the religiously unaffiliated going from 18% in 2016 to 20% in 2022, while the 65-and-older age group has jumped from 12% unaffiliated in 2016 to 17% in 2022.

We hear much about dysfunctional families. What about a dysfunctional society? American trends and behaviours are exported worldwide. Were they uplifting, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, they are not. Mr. Snyder:

If we stay on the road that we are currently on, our society will die.

But if we reverse course and start doing what is right with all our hearts, anything is possible.

We were once a light to the entire world, and we can be that light again.

But at this moment our society is racing into the darkness, and it won’t be too long before our self-destructive behaviour catches up with us in a major way.

Self-destructive behaviours are the product of values (or lack thereof) that govern our thinking. Absent social cohesion, societies become unmoored, demoralized and subject to desperation, cults, crime and polarization. “Management” of social pathologies becomes a growth industry. Healthy civilizations have a reigning ethos, zeitgeist, or common understanding. In America we can’t even agree on what is a man or woman.

Population decline

Don’t get worked up about Mr Trump. Presidents come and go.

But how about survival of the species? Until recently, those predicting population collapse were dismissed. Isn’t population increasing? Yes, but not for long. Global population will begin falling between 2060 and 2080 or earlier.

Folks saying pro-natalists want to overcrowd the planet don’t understand. Once peak population occurs, there will be a precipitous decline with no end in sight. Social upheaval is inevitable. East Asia is acutely aware: Japan, China and South Korea are already losing people. That is also the case in Eastern Europe, though out-migration is a significant factor.   

Thanks to folks like Elon Musk, Malcolm and Simone Collins and even Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., there is rising concern among elites. Maybe Mercator posting about it will help in some small way. Always remember: “Forewarned is forearmed.”  

Clear-eyed or too pessimistic? Tell us what you think.

Louis T. March has a background in government, business, and philanthropy. A former talk show host, author, and public speaker, he is a dedicated student of history and genealogy. Louis lives with his family in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

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