Much of the indecency stemmed from one particularly indecent character. A man who has managed to melt brains preheated by reality television and make himself the center of our political universe.
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2024 was not a great year for basic human decency.
If we’re being honest, no year has been a great year for human decency since whatever it is that evolved into us emerged from the primordial ooze. Humans aren’t great at basic decency, and I assume it didn’t take long for the earliest iteration of a human being to do something obnoxious.
Still, 2024 was suboptimal.
2024 marked by Trump, hateful rhetoric, loony conspiracy theories
An entire community of legal immigrants in Ohio got labeled dog-eaters to give stupid politicians something to fearmonger. A convicted felon who had been found liable for sexual abuse and charged with a multitude of other crimes, a guy who lies with such reckless abandon he has all but eradicated the idea of “facts,” got elected president ‒ again ‒ on a promise of cruelty toward others.
A nutball who thinks vaccines, one of the greatest achievements in medical history, are bad and we should all fight diseases by drinking bacteria-laden raw milk got hoisted up as a person who should oversee the nation’s health.
A massive bridge collapsed in Baltimore and right-wing conspiracy theorists immediately pounced, trying to convince rubes it had something to do with the apparently evil concept of “diversity.”
A South Dakota governor admitted she murdered her dog Cricket in a gravel pit and, by the end of the year, was nominated to run the Department of Homeland Security.
School shootings continue unabated ‒ and don’t forget the wars
School shootings kept happening and politicians continued to do quite literally nothing to stop them. Wars continued war-ing, with little global regard for the loss of innocents, a fact that should shock the collective human conscience, assuming it has one.
I’m not so sure it does. As already stated above, decency isn’t really our thing.
But here at home, you’ll note, much of the indecency stemmed from one particularly indecent character. A man who has managed to melt brains preheated by reality television and, for the past decade, make himself the center of our political universe.
Trump is irredeemable, and he brings out the worst Americans have to offer
Trump is a golden calf and an amalgam of the worst in all of us. His prevalence in American life and his pending return to the presidency have normalized those worst tendencies. He has given comfort to white nationalists and insurrectionists and antisemites, and embraced cruel dictators. The basic things any parent would teach their child not to do ‒ lie, bully, brag ‒ are Trump’s calling cards.
I don’t want or need to hear another argument about him being a tough leader or the best choice for president or someone who appeals to “regular Americans,” whatever that means. Nothing justifies him. Nothing.
He is now and will forever be a stain on American history, a man whose narcissism and lust for power and money led him to sacrifice American decency at an altar he built to honor himself.
How the country does under his upcoming leadership is irrelevant. The moral cost of getting there has already been too steep.
If you thought 2024 was bad for American decency, just wait
Trump is certainly not to blame for all the ills in America ‒ not even close. We’ve been a flawed nation, replete with scoundrels, for some time.
But Trump has, singlehandedly and without question, made this country more cruel, more dishonest and more willing to believe immoral behavior can take you places.
He erodes our decency by example.
2024 was a bad year for America’s sense of right and wrong.
2025 will undoubtedly be far, far worse.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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Publish date : 2024-12-28 20:00:00
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