Everything was awesome

As 2018 draws to a close, it’s a nice time to remember that America is still pretty awesome. And even though the stock market ended the year down after years of gains, even though there are more uninsured Americans and homeless Americans after years of declines, even though the federal deficit is soaring at a time it ought to be shrinking, even though U.S. carbon emissions are rising again and wildfires are worse than ever, even though global confidence in America is at an all-time low, even though duplicitous tech giants seem to be tracking our every move, even though the president’s national security adviser, campaign manager, deputy campaign manager and personal lawyer have all pleaded guilty to felonies, even though …

Huh, come to think of it, that’s a lot of “even though.” It’s awesome that the jobless rate is down to 3.7 percent, but in the data and in the news, it’s starting to feel like something actually is changing, and we’re slouching toward non-awesomeness. The federal government has shut down for no good reason; the commander in chief is raging in his residence at the investigators who have implicated him in felonies; and the supposed grownups in his administration, most recently Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have been fleeing for the exits. Even among Washington Republicans who have tolerated and sometimes encouraged the president’s relentless assaults on longstanding political norms, there’s a growing unease that the daily chaos of the Trump show has become unsustainable, that the wheels are coming off the national bus, and that things are going to reach some sort of breaking point in 2019.