MY PREDICTIONS FOR 2025
Chaos, Confusion, and Corruption
My predictions for 2024, posted at this time last year, began with the statement: “This will be the craziest year you will ever experience. Many traditions will be upended, wild cards will suddenly appear, and surprise events might begin to feel almost normal.” That certainly proved to be true. Almost nothing else I predicted came true. The only thing I feel confident predicting for 2025 is that it will be even crazier than 2024, even more traditions will be upended, more wild cards will appear, and surprise events will continue to feel normal.
The best that informed thoughtful people can do now is to actively promote democracy and oppose oligarchy. We should strive to expect positive outcomes and avoid lending energy to negative thoughts. When events upset us, we need to step back and be the observer, as we watch what is certain to be the most outrageous political shitshow since Great Britain’s Brexit debacle. If Mark Twain were alive today, or Will Rogers, or George Orwell, and they wrote satirical novels describing the current situation in United States government, they would be derided for being overly absurd.
The Republican party is deeply fractured. There appear to be only 38 Republican representatives and four Republican senators who understand how government works and know how to govern. The rest are performers who know how to grab headlines and tear things apart but have no clue how to put anything back together. The good news is that those 42 Republican congress members are already standing up against the outlandish plans of Project 2025 and may be our best hope of retaining our democracy. The Republicans control both houses of congress by slim margins and are not likely to be able to enact any legislation without help from the Democrats.
The Democratic Party leaders appear to be cowering undercover and doing nothing, but I suspect they are quietly working behind the scenes to be ready to challenge, politically and legally, every outrageous move by Trump and his billionaire buddies. I assume they realize that nothing Democrats say or do now can hurt the Republicans as much as their own behavior hurts them. The few Democrats who are speaking out publicly against the Republican nonsense are only fueling the MAGA narrative. The daily public posts and pronouncements by Musk, Trump, Kennedy, and other potential members of the next administration are so tone-deaf and out of step with the desires and beliefs of their own constituents that they are doomed to failure.
While not making any predictions, I expect that Elon Musk will soon be out of favor, possibly before the inauguration. I already see signs that many misinformed, misled, or inattentive voters who cast their ballots for Trump are having second thoughts, realizing that he will not be lowering prices and may in fact cause significant inflation. He will continue to bluster and post nonsense but actually accomplish nothing. I expect the same from congress. The house of representatives cannot agree on the time of day, much less anything substantive. And the senate is more likely to stalemate than to legislate.
So, sit back, take a break from the news if you need to for sanity's sake, or try to enjoy the show as you watch Trump and his team fail miserably, taking the MAGA movement with them. I expect it won’t take four years, or even two, before more rational minds step in and begin cleaning up the mess. Finally, I want to thank my loyal readers for following my weekly posts over the past 15 months. I will continue to make my ramblings available free of any charge but may not continue to post every Friday. I too feel the need for a sanity break and there are plenty of other commentators out there saying what needs to be said.