And So It Was

September 28, 2047. I sit in a rocking chair on the porch of my retirement home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Newton, Massachusetts. More than 25 years have passed since the end of the U.S.'s second civil war and the dissolution of our country. Like the first, between 1861 and 1865, this war started because of uncompromising differences between states over the power of the federal government, and whether the nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, would continue to uphold those rights.

The event that triggered the war was the election of Donald Trump, the first populist president since Andrew Jackson. Trump won the presidency because he sensed, as no other candidate did, that many voters felt ignored and even despised by the elites of both Democratic and Republican parties. His candidacy resonated because increasing numbers of citizens believed that the economic and political systems of the country were rigged against them. 

He, like many populist candidates before him, also found it difficult to resist scapegoating minorities and outsiders, offering simplistic and unrealistic solutions for complicated problems, and destroying trust in every social or government institution other than the military and police.

The long, painful decline of our nation began with a battle over healthcare, which foreshadowed even bigger campaigns for tax reform, free speech, climate change and immigration. By the year 2020, Trump’s original goal of bringing limited chaos had given way to a new strategy of bringing chaos to every sector of American society.

But enough reminiscing for now; I’m just happy that the people of Massachusetts along with the other 5 New England states chose to secede from the Union and enter into an economic and cultural alliance with Canada’s Maritime Provinces. I’m also happy that I was selected to participate in a research study just before my 75th birthday that focused on the removal of senescent cells--frail and damaged cells that age us and promote disease. It was like discovering the fountain of youth.

Learn more:
https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trumps-apocalypse-is-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-america-headed-for-a-new-kind-of-civil-war
https://www.thenation.com/article/are-we-on-the-verge-of-another-civil-war/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4214092
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