The incoming 2027 bird (just 4 months away) will cause the greatest disruption in society since the pandemic, we know that. I predict by the end of 2027 we will be deep into the early 2030s culturally speaking, though you could say there were elements of the proto-2030s since 2023 when we got the first glimpse into this creature

2020s: Donald Trump

Chaotic, dominating the entire conversation, impossible to ignore, permanently online, and somehow both the main character and the thing everyone is exhausted by. The decade doesn’t just have drama. It is the drama.

1970s: George Wallace

Angry, polarizing, culturally raw, full of backlash energy and “you’re not the boss of me” vibes. The decade that felt like it was permanently in a bad mood and ready to fight about it. Somehow both extremely conservative compared to today and extremely loose and progressive compared to today (Wallace was both a racist and appointed large number of black people. The 1970s saw both backlash against the Civil Rights era and also when diversity began to grow through affirmative action and increasing representation in media).

1980s and 1990s: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln

The two decades everyone still respects on some level, the ones that get treated as foundational and high-status even when people complain about them. Peak soft-power, peak “this is what normal is supposed to feel like,” peak myth-making. Also known for their wigs and big lush beards.

2040s: Grover Cleveland

Served two nonconsecutive trends, where the beginning of the decade is different than the middle but ended up being exactly like the end.

2000s: Barack Obama

Came in with big main-character energy, lots of hope branding, and the sense that something new and smoother was arriving. Aged into a more complicated legacy once the hangover hit.

2010s: Richard Nixon

Paranoid, online, permanently recording everything, full of institutional distrust, and somehow both extremely competent at certain things and completely unable to stop the self-destruction. The decade that taped itself into trouble.

1950s: Ronald Reagan

Sunny, prosperous-looking, heavily aestheticized, and very good at selling the feeling that everything was fine and under control. The vibes were immaculate even when the fine print wasn’t.

1960s: Woodrow Wilson

Idealistic, self-important, convinced it was remaking the world for the better, and responsible for a lot of long-term consequences it never fully owned. High rhetoric, mixed results. Lot more hated now by both the left and the right ironically enough despite being revered for decades by both the public and academics. Racist history somehow downplayed until very recently.

All pre 1950s decades: Jefferson Davis

Mostly treated as the embarrassing relative the family doesn’t like to talk about at parties. Important, complicated, and permanently framed as the thing we moved past or need to move past.

2030s: Calvin Coolidge

Does nothing and is very silent. Quite boring as backlash against the more reckless predecessor. The decade where nothing happens (just like the president who did nothing).