It has been noted, here as well, that after covid we may not return to normal but to a new normal. The discontinuity that has opened the door to a re-writing of the rules of the game, the emergence of a new paradigm in Tushman and Anderson's words, is covid. But there has been another societal-level discontinuity; Trump. Yes, Trump was as much a product of social undercurrents in some parts of the country as the cause, but there is no doubt he was a catalyst that has caused a reaction that has changed the nature of the compound we think of as societal norms. Trump has dismantled long held beliefs in the importance of those norms and what new norms emerge is yet to be determined.
Covid has bought on an era of ferment in the ways we live our lives; but we are also in an era of ferment for our values that Trump set in motion. Trumpism is the culmination of tides that have their root in the financial crisis and the Tea party, in shifting demographics, in the propensity for America to see its problems first and foremost through the lens of race, and the fragmentation and balkanization of information with cable and AM radio and more recently social media platforms. The Great American Experiment survived Trump, but history will record that it has been forever changed as a result of his term in office.
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