Nasya Quinn

Eng 101-01

Professor Young

4/16/23

50 Years Later: What Has Changed?

New Year’s Eve is celebrated to foster hope and positivity about the upcoming year because

society is under the belief that every year should be better than the last. What we've failed to

consider, however, is that, similarly to New Year resolutions, improvement requires action,

dedication, and change. 50 years is not the longest amount of time, granted, but in that space,

America has not made substantial amounts of progress in any sector and, in fact, has begun to

regress. Life is not better than it was 50 years ago because of continued political scandal and

corruption, the further dismantling of human rights, and the perpetual hoarding of resources, and

thus, scarcity of them.

To begin, the continuous scandals of the Trump administration mirror that of the Nixon era

which shows a stagnation in American politics which does not necessitate a better quality of life.

Starting in 1972, 5 men were arrested for breaking into the Watergate office, the headquarters for

the Democratic National Committee. Although these men had ties to the FBI and CIA, Nixon

was suspected of no wrongdoing and won his reelection in 1972 (Perlstein, 2023, para. 2). It

wasn’t until 1973, however, that it was revealed that Nixon was involved in the Watergate
Scandal and actively tried to suppress the connection between the Watergate burglars and the

Committee to Re-Elect the President, an organization that had connections to high-level officials

in the White House, many of which had a direct connection to Nixon (Britannica, n.d, para. 8).

Due to Nixon’s scheming, the White House’s integrity was called into question. This incident

directly parallels the misconduct of Trump and his staff during his presidency. Specifically,

Trump was tried for impeachment twice, a feat even Nixon didn’t achieve. The first time he was

tried was because he attempted to bribe the President of Ukraine with U.S foreign aid money to

force him to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The second time Trump was tried for

impeachment, on the other hand, he incited a poorly informed, yet heavily outraged mob to riot

the Capitol as Trump suggested the officials there rigged the election in Biden’s favor

(HISTORY, 2023, para. 3 & 6). Although different from his first offense, both incidents show

Trump using his status as the president to make people bend to his will. Even though these

incidents occurred in the 21st century, they do nothing but mimic the past. In the 1970s, Nixon

took advantage of his position and used it to benefit him and in the last 50 years nothing has

changed. American politics and politicians have done nothing to benefit American citizens and

instead waste their time playing power games. This lack of leadership has left America stranded

and without civic improvement even 50 years into the future.

Due to the GOP rolling back legislation that protects minorities and provides institutional

support to citizens, the well-being of Americans hasn’t improved in the past 50 years.

Surprisingly, in 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe’s favor during the monumental case Roe

v. Wade. The ruling in this case gave women the constitutional right to an abortion under the 14th

Amendment (Saperstone, 2022, para. 4). Unfortunately, through intentional conservative judge
stacking, when Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health passed through the Supreme Court during the

end of 2021 questioning the protection of abortion under the Constitution, it gave way for the

Republican majority Supreme Court to take away women’s legal right to abortion. Therefore, the

legality of abortion now depends on the state. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, 13 states

have now banned abortion and 8 more have tried to and failed (New York Times, 2023).

However, the attack on the rights of American citizens doesn’t just stop at women, but also

extends to the queer community. Over the last couple of years, specifically during and following

the presidency of Trump, many states have been oppressing queer and, above all, trans people.

The most queerphobic state, at this moment, appears to be Florida. Governed by increasingly

notorious Rob DeSantis, Florida has two major bills which endanger and restrict the LGBTQ+

community. Firstly, DeSantis’ ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill is causing a rift in Florida and in the country.

DeSantis’ bill is an expansion of a previous bill passed last year. In that bill, the discussion of

sexual orientation and gender identity was prohibited from Pre-K to 3rd grade. As of April 19th,

however, the exploration of sexual orientation and gender identity has been banned from Pre-K

all the way to 12th grade in Florida (Izaguirre, 2023). On an institutional level, this bill has

essentially erased the existence of the LGBTQ+ community in the classroom. This will

invalidate queer teachers, students, parents, and overall disrespects the trials and tribulations this

group of people went through for visibility and legal protections. Rob DeSantis doesn’t seem to

take this into consideration, clearly, and instead, many speculate that this, and other homophobic

bills he passed, are a means to gain the vote of the right and conservative evangelists when he

possibly runs for president in 2024. In addition to his ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill, DeSantis has also

been restricting the healthcare transgender youth can receive in his state. Notably, a 46-page

document to the state Health Department was sent detailing that transgender youth who wish to
take puberty blockers, engage in hormone therapy, and receive gender reassignment surgery

should not have those procedures and medications covered under Medicaid (Caputo, 2022, para.

2). Essentially, DeSantis, and the many republicans that agree with him, are on a campaign to

make the lives of transgender people difficult and non-affirming. The fact that government

officials in America are actively trying to strip the rights of certain American citizens based on

their identity is disheartening but not surprising as America was built on bigotry and hatred. As

long as bigotry and hatred are prioritized in America instead of progress and knowledge,

America will never improve, and Americans will remain unhappy and unsafe.

Finally, many can argue that since numerous technological advancements have been made in the

last couple of decades, the lives of America citizens have improved greatly. Unfortunately,

people do not consider how inaccessible a lot of these innovations are to the public and how,

overall, through the greed of various corporations in America, any of the progress America has

made is actively restricted against for most of the population. Nothing demonstrates the divide of

Americans like the access to phones and internet does. Especially highlighted during the

pandemic, many families had to scramble together half-baked ideas and the little money they had

to try to find or buy at-home internet so that their children could go to school. As of 2015, 20%

of Americans do not have at home internet access (Galvin, 2017, para. 7). This is only

exacerbated by America’s obsession with digitizing everything from school to money. If

technology is supposed to help us, why are Americans struggle to gain access to it? The

exclusivity of American resources doesn’t just stop at the digital realm, but also bleeds into the

disappearance and overconsumption of America’s natural resources. In 2020, 96 out of 204

basins we use to supply us with water are in danger of running out by 2070 (Heggie, 2020).
Although the article discusses numerous ways that American citizens, as individuals, can lower

their consumption of water, I don’t think the author pondered why is our environment is unable

to sustain itself in the first place. Might it be because of corporations' dedication to shortcuts and

quick savings, no matter the consequences? Like how almost 50 years ago, in New Jersey, the

Ford Motor Co. dumped toxic paint sludge onto indigenous lands, thus poisoning their

groundwater and potentially infecting a reservoir millions of New Jersians drink from. Or could

it be the zinc mining companies in Picher, Oklahoma where they caused a buildup of heavy

metals so bad, the town’s aquifer is no longer safe to drink (News21 Staff, Spearing-Bowen, and

Schneider, 2017, para. 1-3)? As a whole, America is its own worst enemy as any problem the

country has can be traced back to its own countrymen. Greed and the prioritization of money

over people will not be fixed by the continued discovery of gizmos and gadgets, but by

divestment and the abolishing of amoral and abnormally rich companies and people.

All in all, America’s lack of a strong or reliable executive branch, the regress of American social

policy and ideology, and America’s extreme late-stage and, ultimately, unsustainable reliance on

capitalism has resulted in a country that has remained stuck in history. Although this essay

highlighted the many missteps America has taken in reinventing its legacy, the most important

thing is learning how we can improve from here. If this essay has shown nothing else, as I stated

in the beginning, the only way for improvement to occur is through effort, commitment, and

adaptation. If American officials, as well as citizens lived by and acted upon these principles,

America does not have to spend the next 50 years deteriorating instead of repairing itself.

References
Britannica (2023). The 1970s. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/The-1970s

Britannica (2023). Watergate scandal. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal

Berman, Dan (2022). A long list of investigations and lawsuits involving Donald Trump. CNN

Politics. Retrieved from

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/12/politics/list-investigations-trump/index.html

Saperstone, Jeff (2022). Timeline: Roe v. Wade Abortion Law From 1973-2022. NBC Boston.

Retrieved from

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Izaguirre, Anthony (2023). 'Don't Say Gay' Expansion Requested By Gov. DeSantis Approved.

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01eeae4b0d8403885d228

Caputo, Marc (2022). DeSantis moves to ban transition care for transgender youths, Medicaid

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-youth-medicaid-recipien-rcna31736
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https://publicintegrity.org/environment/industrial-waste-pollutes-americas-drinking-water/

Galvin, Gaby (2017). States Struggle to Bridge Digital Divide. U.S News. Retrieved from

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an-life-yet-millions-remain-under-connected

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is