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Comment by aaron-lebo | Hacker News Reader

Nah, people have short attention spans.

You cite the dismal perception from 2006-2008, but what changed? In 2008 Obama was elected and everything is new again and he won the Nobel. Did the country completely change in 2 years? Has it changed that much in 8?

Not really, that's why getting so riled up over singular negative events isn't worth your time. Things change fast, and countries have long histories. Germany and Japan were ruled by jingoist elites for centuries and just 80 years ago they were culling populations. Today they are examples of doing it right. Do we really believe 4 years of a bad leader is gonna flip centuries of progress?

It's an issue, yeah, but let's not overstate it because that' s not being honest with ourselves.

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Assuming Trump stays for the full term (all signs point that way right now, no matter what impeachment hopes and dreams people have), four years of damage is pretty long.

And you're right, in the grand scheme of things, it may not matter. But four years is a pretty long time in tech-timelines for other countries to start catching up to Silicon Valley's vibrancy.

> Assuming Trump stays for the full term (all signs point that way right now, no matter what impeachment hopes and dreams people have), four years of damage is pretty long

Bush damaged US reputation way more than Trump, USA did recover. For entrepreneurs and talents, Canada, Germany or France just can't compete, especially France with a bureaucracy that will crush one's bones.

>"Bush damaged US reputation way more than Trump, USA did recover"

George W. Bush was in office for 8 years, Trump has been in office for 6 months. How can you realistically compare the two? I also don't understand the past tense. Trump is still a sitting President.

>USA did recover

Has it? I'm pretty sure most of the country's (and let's be real, many other nations) currents problems are directly related to actions undertaken by Dubya and his despicable administration.

I started out this post by attempting to defend G.W. Bush, but considering the Iraq War and his handling of the Afghanistan War, the worldwide consequences have been catastrophic beyond that of the Vietnam War.

Let's say it's an open question.

If we ignore illegal wars, Bush comes out ahead.

If we ignore the majority of what Trump says or Tweets, Trump comes out ahead.

I wish there were a metric for ignoramus, I suspect Trump would be fully one or two orders magnitude a bigger moron than Bush except when it comes to how to handle fellow con artists. He was apparently adept at handling the mob.

In order to be impeached, you have to actually have committed a crime, no?

So far as I know, tweeting dumb shit is not yet a criminal offense.

I've suspected from the outset that four years of Trump would effectively amount to four years of stasis, with perhaps a chance of getting a conservative majority in the supreme court for the foreseeable future.

Germany hasn't even existed for "centuries", it wasn't unified until the late 19th century.

Right, never said otherwise. Prussia was militaristic and did lead the German states.

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