The long-term damage MAGA is doing to us.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2025 10:59 pm
Yo, what’s up friends? Well. Now that we’re under way into the MAGA administration again, here’s my hot take:
Things really are different this time, and not in a way that can just be reversed in a few years. The damage being done is lasting, and in some cases, permanent.
Loss of Institutional Capabilities
You can’t just shut something down and expect to restart it later like flipping a switch. Institutions rely on expertise built up over time. Take foreign policy analysts at the CIA—junior analysts spend years developing knowledge, relationships, and experience. If you dismantle that because the findings are politically inconvenient, you don’t just bring it back later. The people have moved on, the knowledge base is gone, and the entire network is disrupted. This is happening across the board—water management, disease control, disaster response, agricultural planning, FDA enforcement, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the weather service, NASA, cybersecurity, intelligence—basically, all the things we take for granted the government is supposed to handle.
Loss of Economic and Social Infrastructure
Same principle, different sector. If you slash government support in a community—whether it’s closing an air base or cutting benefits—the effects ripple outward. The local Walmart shuts down. The next administration might restore the benefits, but Walmart isn’t reopening if it can’t trust the funding to last. And the people who worked there? They’ve moved on. This applies to health clinics, community centers, schools, veterans’ services—anything that requires a stable foundation to function. You can’t just rip it all out and expect to replant it later.
Loss of International Economic Partnerships
Long-term investments and economic partnerships rely on stability—on the assumption that when the US signs a deal, it will actually stick to it. That’s gone. Even if a President keeps deferring tariffs every 30 days, what matters is that the US has shown itself to be unreliable. If you’re a Canadian business, why take the risk of working with an American supplier when their government could randomly cut them off? If you’re an American processor, why invest in handling Canadian raw materials when your own government might torpedo the deal? The uncertainty alone is enough to kill investment.
Loss of International Alliances
Same story. NATO is no longer a guarantee. If you’re in the Baltics, you can’t bet your country’s survival on a “maybe.” Countries that once trusted the US to keep its word are now forced to rethink their defense strategies. Denmark has to wonder if a base the US builds in Greenland today could be used against them tomorrow. Allies can’t plan military strategies around American-made systems if future administrations might weaponize the supply chain. The result? A fractured alliance system that can’t be put back together with a simple apology. It doesn’t need to be said, but I will - Russia isn’t a trustworthy nor reliable partner.
Loss of International Credibility
We’re not on an island. Historically, the US honored agreements, even the ones a new administration didn’t like. Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a continuation of Trump’s deal with the Taliban—because once a deal was made, the US stuck to it. That’s how global stability works. But now? Any country negotiating with the US knows that agreements mean nothing. A nuclear-armed state considering disarmament won’t trust that sanctions relief will last. The US is no longer a reliable partner.
Loss of Soft Power
Even US allies are turning away. Canadians—who routinely send firefighters to help with US wildfires—are booing the national anthem. European leaders don’t just disagree with the US; they openly pity and mock it. The idea that the UK would follow America into another war, as Blair did with Iraq, is laughable now. A huge part of US global influence relied on its allies moving in sync with it—on the idea that if you turned against the US, you also lost access to Japan, Korea, Australia, Canada, Europe. That network effect is breaking down. America isn’t leading anymore; it’s flailing, and no one wants to follow.
Loss of the Rules-Based International Order
The one thing that’s kept global war at bay is the principle that land grabs won’t be tolerated. If a country tries it, the response is swift and punishing. That system is collapsing. By abandoning Ukraine, the US isn’t just ceding territory to Russia—it’s signaling that the rules don’t apply anymore. That means China can go after Taiwan. Russia can go after Estonia. Turkey can seize Greek Cyprus. And countries without nuclear weapons are now wondering if they need them. The odds of a conflict spiraling into a full-scale war are higher than they’ve been since 1962, and there’s no safety net left. If you have young kids, their chances of fighting in a war just shot up.
Loss of the Social Contract
At the core of any functioning society is a shared agreement about what is and isn’t acceptable. Not everything is written in law—some things we just don’t do. You don’t openly take bribes as a government official. You don’t threaten election workers if they won’t fake results for you. The US used to have an institutional culture that held the system together. Once that’s gone, corruption becomes the norm, not the exception. If bribery isn’t punished, then the contractor paying off officials wins the bid—not the one with the best product. And once that culture takes hold, it’s almost impossible to undo, because the people benefiting from the corruption have every reason to keep it going.
This isn’t just a partisan problem—it’s everywhere. When Leftists start cheering for the execution of a healthcare CEO, that’s a symptom of the same rot. The belief in fair systems, in rule of law, in values that make a country functional—that’s what’s unraveling.
And even if you ignore all of that—ignore government officials making openly racist statements, ignore the consolidation of power under oligarchs, ignore the Nazi salutes, ignore the fact that the President is siding with Russia over US allies—the reality is, this country is screwed. Not just for the next election cycle. For decades.
Anyway, just dropping in for a sec. I’ve trying to live my life and ignoring the pointless cycles of back and forths with the Unreachables. My next adventure is to hike the Portuguese Way in a couple of months. I need time to process and clear out the poison that has infected us all.
Peace,
Doc Cam
Things really are different this time, and not in a way that can just be reversed in a few years. The damage being done is lasting, and in some cases, permanent.
Loss of Institutional Capabilities
You can’t just shut something down and expect to restart it later like flipping a switch. Institutions rely on expertise built up over time. Take foreign policy analysts at the CIA—junior analysts spend years developing knowledge, relationships, and experience. If you dismantle that because the findings are politically inconvenient, you don’t just bring it back later. The people have moved on, the knowledge base is gone, and the entire network is disrupted. This is happening across the board—water management, disease control, disaster response, agricultural planning, FDA enforcement, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the weather service, NASA, cybersecurity, intelligence—basically, all the things we take for granted the government is supposed to handle.
Loss of Economic and Social Infrastructure
Same principle, different sector. If you slash government support in a community—whether it’s closing an air base or cutting benefits—the effects ripple outward. The local Walmart shuts down. The next administration might restore the benefits, but Walmart isn’t reopening if it can’t trust the funding to last. And the people who worked there? They’ve moved on. This applies to health clinics, community centers, schools, veterans’ services—anything that requires a stable foundation to function. You can’t just rip it all out and expect to replant it later.
Loss of International Economic Partnerships
Long-term investments and economic partnerships rely on stability—on the assumption that when the US signs a deal, it will actually stick to it. That’s gone. Even if a President keeps deferring tariffs every 30 days, what matters is that the US has shown itself to be unreliable. If you’re a Canadian business, why take the risk of working with an American supplier when their government could randomly cut them off? If you’re an American processor, why invest in handling Canadian raw materials when your own government might torpedo the deal? The uncertainty alone is enough to kill investment.
Loss of International Alliances
Same story. NATO is no longer a guarantee. If you’re in the Baltics, you can’t bet your country’s survival on a “maybe.” Countries that once trusted the US to keep its word are now forced to rethink their defense strategies. Denmark has to wonder if a base the US builds in Greenland today could be used against them tomorrow. Allies can’t plan military strategies around American-made systems if future administrations might weaponize the supply chain. The result? A fractured alliance system that can’t be put back together with a simple apology. It doesn’t need to be said, but I will - Russia isn’t a trustworthy nor reliable partner.
Loss of International Credibility
We’re not on an island. Historically, the US honored agreements, even the ones a new administration didn’t like. Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a continuation of Trump’s deal with the Taliban—because once a deal was made, the US stuck to it. That’s how global stability works. But now? Any country negotiating with the US knows that agreements mean nothing. A nuclear-armed state considering disarmament won’t trust that sanctions relief will last. The US is no longer a reliable partner.
Loss of Soft Power
Even US allies are turning away. Canadians—who routinely send firefighters to help with US wildfires—are booing the national anthem. European leaders don’t just disagree with the US; they openly pity and mock it. The idea that the UK would follow America into another war, as Blair did with Iraq, is laughable now. A huge part of US global influence relied on its allies moving in sync with it—on the idea that if you turned against the US, you also lost access to Japan, Korea, Australia, Canada, Europe. That network effect is breaking down. America isn’t leading anymore; it’s flailing, and no one wants to follow.
Loss of the Rules-Based International Order
The one thing that’s kept global war at bay is the principle that land grabs won’t be tolerated. If a country tries it, the response is swift and punishing. That system is collapsing. By abandoning Ukraine, the US isn’t just ceding territory to Russia—it’s signaling that the rules don’t apply anymore. That means China can go after Taiwan. Russia can go after Estonia. Turkey can seize Greek Cyprus. And countries without nuclear weapons are now wondering if they need them. The odds of a conflict spiraling into a full-scale war are higher than they’ve been since 1962, and there’s no safety net left. If you have young kids, their chances of fighting in a war just shot up.
Loss of the Social Contract
At the core of any functioning society is a shared agreement about what is and isn’t acceptable. Not everything is written in law—some things we just don’t do. You don’t openly take bribes as a government official. You don’t threaten election workers if they won’t fake results for you. The US used to have an institutional culture that held the system together. Once that’s gone, corruption becomes the norm, not the exception. If bribery isn’t punished, then the contractor paying off officials wins the bid—not the one with the best product. And once that culture takes hold, it’s almost impossible to undo, because the people benefiting from the corruption have every reason to keep it going.
This isn’t just a partisan problem—it’s everywhere. When Leftists start cheering for the execution of a healthcare CEO, that’s a symptom of the same rot. The belief in fair systems, in rule of law, in values that make a country functional—that’s what’s unraveling.
And even if you ignore all of that—ignore government officials making openly racist statements, ignore the consolidation of power under oligarchs, ignore the Nazi salutes, ignore the fact that the President is siding with Russia over US allies—the reality is, this country is screwed. Not just for the next election cycle. For decades.
Anyway, just dropping in for a sec. I’ve trying to live my life and ignoring the pointless cycles of back and forths with the Unreachables. My next adventure is to hike the Portuguese Way in a couple of months. I need time to process and clear out the poison that has infected us all.
Peace,
Doc Cam