I find that Five US Crises have led to immediate political and social change and sometimes for generations and one could do so as well.
1860-1 - the coming Civil War, which led to Lincoln being elected, Abolition and over 50 years of political dominance for the fledgling GOP.
1930-32 - the Great Depression, which led to a Democratic White House for 20 straight years and control of Congress for all but 8 years until 1980 and 1994 and the New Deal and the Great Society entitlements.
1973-1980 - The Great American Malaise, which led to the Reagan Revolution, the Gingrich Common Sense Revolution, Welfare Reform, the end of the Cold War and GOP control of Congress for the first time in 40 years and for all but 6 of the past 26 years.
2001 - 911, which led to midterm success for a "minority" president, the War on Terror and the long and costly Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2008 - the Financial Meltdown, which led to Obama. the doubling of the National Debt, the slowest economic recovery in history, Obamacare and the Tea Party movement.
2020 - the COVID Crisis...which will lead to...? We will soon find out whether Americans think the real crisis is that they are not safe enough or that they are not free enough. The only questions then will become who benefits from that choice and for how long. What's a little disturbing is that, if you include the Deep State phenomenon, which emerged in all its ugliness, tyranny, politicization and illegality with Trump's campaign and presidency (but also figured in the Benghazi, IRS and other scandals of the Obama admin.) as a Crisis, too, four out of seven of these Crises have occurred in the past 19 years alone. Unsettling, indeed.
