Trump has nothing as far as destruction of this country compared to Reagan. You want to trace the end of the American Empire -- put that blame on Reagan and his acolytes first.
I don't care who is the president, growing up in Billings Montana will always suck!
I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and can certainly complain about a lot of things about that time.
In your mind, what are the top few most wretched aspects of that time? I grew up in south central Los Angeles, and so gang and drug crime would be the top of my list.
I live in LA now and ride the bus through South Central, and I've lived there and I have found that place far more welcoming to me than I ever did back in Montana.
So, YMMV and the grass is always greener. But I'm a lot happier in the poor parts of LA than I ever was in Billings, Montana.
South central has enormously improved since the late 70s up through the early 90s. As a kid, I was personally shot up a couple of times from the street. Crack houses were everywhere, and the gangs were pretty terrifying.
The predators in the elementary school are allowed to prey. While I don't want to discount how bad things were in South Central back then, a lot of white people crime is swept under the rug and a lot of crime in ethnically diverse neighborhoods is splashed on front page news.