The long-term damage MAGA is doing to us.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

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

[dantana]

Good to see you again Cam. You have proven your reasoning laid out here by the evident disruption on this board when you take a hiatus. I just turned my TV news off. That was my fix for it.

[Gadianton]

Glad you're doing well Cam and good luck on the trip. Good points all; the only consolation is that on average right-wingers will be screwed just as bad as anyone.

[canpakes]

My next adventure is to hike the Portuguese Way in a couple of months.

I really do hope that you’ll stop in from time to time to post pics.

No need to pay attention to the politics, but if you’re inclined to leave behind some photos, it’ll be appreciated by more than a few of us maneuvering about in MAGAland. : )

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Doc!! Freaking awesome to see you here again.

I believe you've already hiked the Appalachian Trail. The Camino will be a piece of cake compared to that. Let us know how it goes.

[Gunnar]

I have sadly come to the same conclusions, Doc! Thanks for articulating them so plainly. I suspect that before Trump's term is over, even Much of his MAGA base will have a hard time avoiding coming to those same conclusions. Certainly most of those who voted against Trump in the last election fear that what you articulated is probably inevitable. I'm sure that even a sizable proportion of Republican leaders also realize that but are, so far, either too cowardly to admit it or just don't care because they corruptibly and/or foolishly hope to gain or retain unlimited wealth and power by somehow taking advantage of the now nearly inevitable, lawless chaos that is looming.

Almost certainly, as you said, confidence in our nation as a respected and rational world leader is all but gone and may never return. There is no doubt that Vladimir Putin is delighted by this turn of events, nor can there be much doubt that, at least as long as he rules, Russia will aggressively endeavor to invade and restore to its hegemony at least as much as it can of what the former USSR once controlled. Putin makes no secret of the fact that that is his ultimate goal.

[Kishkumen]

Good to see you, DocCam! Enjoy your journey! Best to get these adventures in while there is still some semblance of civilization left.

[Gunnar]

Good points all; the only consolation is that on average right-wingers will be screwed just as bad as anyone.

I wonder how long it will take them to realize that. Even if they eventually do come to the realization that they are in fact "screwed just as bad as anyone," how many of them will blame Trump for that, vs. believing Trump's inevitable lie that it was all somehow Biden's or the Democrats' fault, despite that Trump is the one now in power.

[Physics Guy]

Americans have elected Trump twice and the bell cannot be unrung. A country that can do something like that can never be trusted again. It can't be trusted to act in the common good, or to keep its promises, or even to act intelligently in its own interests.

[Some Schmo]

Well said, Cam.

The thing is, there are a lot of Trump voters, the Murica First crowd, that thinks the kind of isolationism you described will make us stronger.

It's hard to imagine being that dumb.