This has been a very interesting year so far.
The Democrats are in disarray; divided and absorbed in Identity Politics/Intersectionality fights they will never win. Having all but forgotten the Class based policies that were their winning ticket with the working class.
The Republicans are being led by Trump. I think that is enough said.
Neither party is healthy, and the nation itself is polarized and paralyzed due to cultural indecision and fragmentation.
From a broader perspective, the US has lost its national Myth due to various reasons, but I would say mostly by the corrupting power of Greed in one party, and Secularization in the other. And while it could be said that Greed – in a lot of ways – has been the driving force of America (and Humanity as a whole), we are a nation of, now, mostly treasure seekers. We didn’t however start out Secularized:
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
Secularization, and Progressivism as rising powers are relatively new. Their birth pangs started earlier but where announced by Nietzsche’s famous quote:
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?
Nietzsche, The Gay Science
With no Transcendental God to cleave to, and no Noble Lie to aspire or reach for as a Nation, we have splintered into ego driven tribes. Or if not our egos, than those of Actors, Political leaders, etc, who have become our “gods”, and mythical heroes instead.
With no Transcendent Values to guide us, we have created our own systems, as we have become, as Nietzsche also foresaw “ubermensch”; Men and women that believe they can create their own virtues and values whole cloth. Be it “Greed is Good” or “Diversity is our Strength”. Of course neither are absolute Good or Evil, but when taken as one’s highest values, they become pseudo/psychological “gods”, and who can question pursuits of wealth and endless division as ultimate goods when our morality has become relativistic, and based on individual axioms?
The American Myth of “Manifest Destiny” (more loosely American Democratic Institutions and the spread of Western Values across the World; America saw itself as the City upon a Hill – a new Jerusalem) as seen in the image of this article, as flawed as it was, has been supplanted by “Manifest Guilt”; we flagilate ourselves for the ills of an imperfect Western Civilization. Never mind that we have it better than almost any prior civilization in history. (When it comes to wealth and “quality of life”;while understanding things like the Pareto distribution, that perfect equality can never be.)
I do not see us having a bright future as a county, or a civilization any time soon. It might get better if/when we bring the old into the new…
Predictions for 2020 based on what is currently going on; Trump will most likely be re-elected (though this is dependent on what happens with the Corona Virus and our economy due to it.) If Trump wins, I expect a lot of the Left to go even more insane and the anti-Trump rhetoric to increase. I fear that due to the trends that happen in the US due to the Great Conjunction(happening on 21 December 2020), an unhinged person might try to take matters into their own hands in Regards to whoever wins the election. Including physical violence.