Were the ’90s the Last Good Decade?
Or did they set the stage for our worst problems?
Remember the ‘90s? If you are an American, and you’re old enough, you may remember the decade as the last good time in American history. The Soviet Union had been defeated, and America faced no serious foreign challengers. The economy boomed for most of the decade. In contrast to our last four years of nonstop, anxiety-inducing news, so little was going on that much of our “news” focused on the likes of Tonya Harding or O.J. Simpson. These were interesting events with cultural resonance, but they nothing like our current drumbeat of plague and insanity. Even the big political event of the decade — Bill Clinton’s sex scandal and impeachment — might not make a top-10 list of the Trump administration’s worst moments.
In hindsight, the ’90s may seem like our last national era of good feelings, a calm prelude to the anger, mistakes, division, and disasters that have characterized the last 20 years. If you look a little closer, however, you’ll see a darker side of the decade. The easygoing days of the ‘90s were possible because Americans decided to ignore their growing problems. They were like the years you might have if you take out a mortgage you can’t afford and max out your credit cards on expensive goodies — a fun time, but the bills eventually come due.
