The parties are basically lighting rods at this point. They claim that they're for this or against that, they would do this, we should do that, and if only we... blablabla. But in the end, nothing concrete ever changes. Sure there are adjustments here or there that quickly get canceled by the next administration, but nothing systemic is ever really changing.
- SCOTUS would be radically different in composition without a GOP President being elected in 2016. That would have preserved post-Watergate reforms that prevented broad, sweeping executive actions that go against Congress's wishes. So at best Trump II could only look like a Trump I
- We wouldn't have attacked Iran. Continued closing of Hormuz has pretty far-reaching consequences
- EU might not be trying as hard to be as independent on defense matters, and the US would be active in Ukraine
- US would not be as ambivalent about Taiwan under a non-Trump administration
There are many places where things wouldn't have changed much. But electing Trump has had far reaching consequences to the constitutional system.
For example I voted for Claudia de la Cruz in the 2024 election because she was on the ballot in Virginia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_De_la_Cruz_2024_presid...
There’s no party, neither the Democratic and especially not the Republican Party would come anywhere near these policy positions and I’m in support of 100% of the positions they seem obvious to me as correct.
But global property has never been lower. We’ve never lived in a time with such access to medicine and vaccines. We have cheap solar and wind some argued would be impossible.
But in reality much of what you say is only part of the picture.
On politics. We’ve never had a time since 1900 of higher political engagement. Turnout in elections has rarely been so high as the last two decades.
I also disagree that the parties are that uniform. We have Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Abigail Spanberger. The GOP has JD Vance types who are little like classic hawkish Lindsey Graham republicans.
Tech billionaires have never been as consistently unpopular[1]. And data center activism has been pretty universal across partisan lines
Finally housing prices in the US finally flattened after a big spike in COVID. And housing completions have increased [2]. Car prices have actually fallen in recent years [3]
1 - https://yougov.com/en-us/ratings/business-figures?sortBy=fam...
2 - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=27&eid=20985