In his 1970 book Future Shock, Alvin Toffler argued that society was undergoing such enormous technological and social change that people were disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation” – they were experiencing Future Shock. Today, in 2025, the United States government is undergoing a massive disorientation caused by four years of the Biden administration’s open-border policies, as well as decades of increasing spending and national debt. President Trump is administering his version of Future Shock to the federal government. What is unfortunate, however, is that the more successful Trump is in taming the out-of-control federal government, the more confidence the Democrats, Progressives, and the radical Left (“collectively, the Left”) will have in being more aggressive when they assume control of government at some future date.
President Trump is implementing the rapid changes he promised during his 2024 campaign. His change is stressful to the Left. To deal with their stress, the Left, for the next four years, will continue its organized attacks against Trump. From experience in the 2020 presidential election, they know that their attacks can be successful in discrediting the president and his policies. If they are, they will likely win control of the federal government in 2028.
Once in control, the Left will abandon its old game plans, which expanded government services to make more citizens dependent on the government. Instead, the Left will copy Trump’s aggressive governing style. The more success Trump achieves with his bold policy moves, the more confidence the Left will gain that they can successfully impose an expansive Leftist agenda on the nation.
President Trump is using Executive power more aggressively than any modern president. He uses Executive Orders, Emergency Declarations, mass firings of civil servants, the closure of agencies and ethics offices, and the dismissal of inspector generals to shrink the size and cost of government. He believes the American people elected him to implement his campaign promises, not those of the bureaucrats. To bring industry back to the U.S., he even instructs companies on where to produce their products and imposes tariffs (taxes) on those who do not comply. Trump is acting as the chief executive of the nation, and his job is to straighten out the mess.
Hundreds of lawsuits are being filed against the Trump administration. He wins some and loses some, the same as all past administrations. The ultimate concern with this approach is what happens if the Supreme Court orders Trump to take or refrain from a specific action, and he refuses to comply. The Supreme Court does not have the power to enforce such an order. The Left is likely hoping for that point to arrive. Whether Trump accepts the court’s order or refuses to comply with it, the Left, without taking any risk, will have its answer as to how far it can push the current courts.
The nation should expect that when the Left next takes control of the White House and Congress, it will have learned from the Trump administration the limits of Executive power. It will devise a strategy it believes can circumvent the power of the courts.
Instead of slashing government programs, the Left will build a massive government that controls every aspect of society. By relying on grants and subsidies rather than repealing regulations and agencies, the Left is generally safe from adverse court decisions. Courts rarely strike down appropriations for programs Congress finds in the public interest.
The Left will start by abolishing the Senate filibuster to eliminate the ability of any Republican to stop their efforts. Eliminating the filibuster is the key change that will allow Democrats to remake the U.S. into their authoritarian ‘nirvana.’ Eliminating the filibuster is likely since it is only a Senate rule, and parts have been repealed for judicial nominations, cabinet officers, and budget reconciliation. When the filibuster is repealed, the party in power can enact laws by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. Once this occurs, the United States will be on a fast track to restructuring a Constitutional Republic into an authoritarian society, a future that should concern us all.
After watching Trump restructure the federal government, the Left will have overwhelming confidence that they can remake the Supreme Court to secure favorable majority rulings for decades. The Constitution does not place any limits on the number of Supreme Court justices that a president can appoint to the court. All a Left-leaning Congress needs to do is pass a law that sets the number. The president then nominates the number of justices necessary to secure judicial approval of leftist policies.
With confidence and likely some Republican votes, Democrats will next eliminate the Debt Ceiling. This one act will allow them to spend whatever is needed to remain rulers of the nation. They will radically expand the voting rolls and use the criminal system to warehouse political opponents as they did with the January 6ers. All these activities can be engineered under the U.S. Constitution as long as Congress authorizes them.
After January 20, 2029, Trump will no longer be president, but he will have educated the Left on using power to implement an administration’s policies. With this possible outcome in mind, it is hoped that President Trump will rely on Congress to implement his policies through statute rather than using Executive Orders and Emergency Declarations that the next president can easily overturn. There are only so many Future Shocks a nation can take. The 2029 Future Shock is preventable.
