2018 was a monstrous year, especially in a political sense. Enough happened in American politics to published several hundred textbooks on the various controversies, tragedies, and debates. 2018 would be a monumental year normally, but throw in a midterm election and possibly insane President, and you have a recipe for a year to remember in political history textbooks for years to come.
10. White House’s High Turnover Rate
2018 also saw many of Trump’s inner cabinet members leaving the White House, either being fired, resigning or resigning by force. Most notably, John Kelly, the chief of staff, announced his departure and Omarosa Newman, the Director of Communications for the office of Public Liaison resigned in January. Rex Tillerson was fired as the Secretary of State, General Jim Mattis announced his retirement as Defense Secretary and Jeff Sessions was fired as Attorney General. While these are not the only important dismissals and resignations, it is a good show that there is chaos in the White House. Despite all bias and outsider thoughts, an incredibly high turnover rate in any organization is an easy way to see very high turmoil within the organization.
9. Wildfires Spark Debate
During the summer and November of 2018, California experienced a horrible wave of wildfires across their forests. During the year, a grand total of 8,257 fires broke out burning a total of 1.8 million acres across California and costing more than 3.5 billion dollars in damage. Also, unfortunately as of this time of writing 98 civilians and six firefighters were killed, with some still missing. During the November fires, the Camp Fire broke out which included 86 of those deaths and is now known as California’s deadliest and most destructive fires to ever happen.
These fires opened a whole new debate about the effect and existence of climate change in America and sparked some brand-new uninformed comments from President Trump. Trump stated that it is California’s fault for the fires that tore across their state, and threatened to hold their federal disaster funding, despite the literal disaster that killed so many people. However, this seems to be the hill Trump is choosing to die on, as fire scientists say it is climate change causing the fires, not forest management, yet Trump continues to blame California’s liberal leadership.
8. Parkland Tragedy Spurs Youth
Unfortunately, on Valentine’s Day 2018 a shooter opened fire in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killing 17 students and faculty. While this tragic event quickly led to the arrest of Nikolas Cruz, the event left a lasting scar on the country as the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas took to social media to express their displeasure with the government for not preventing the tragedy that changed their lives.
Survivors Emma González and David Hogg gained national notoriety for their public speaking for gun control and against the legality of military-style rifles in Florida and the country. These two also eventually helped form Never Again MSD, a student-led political action committee devoted to preventing gun violence.
7. Students March For Their Lives
Following the Parkland shooting, students across the entire nation took to the streets to protest gun violence in the United States. The main march in Washington D.C. included an estimated 800,000 people all protesting gun violence. Besides Washington, over 800 more cities nationwide participated in their own marches with even more worldwide participating. The closest approximation for the total number of attending in America was 1.2 million, with the total global number unknown.
Besides the march, on the one-month anniversary of the tragedy students across the nation participated in a school walkout for 17 minutes, one for each person killed in Parkland. An estimated 3,000 schools and one million students participated, and additional controversy was generated when some high schools suspended and punished students who walked out.
6. Stormy Daniels v. Donald Trump
In perhaps the most ridiculous but still concerning story of 2018, the Wall Street Journal published that there was existence of a nondisclosure agreement between pornstar Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. After some legal maneuvering, Stormy Daniels accused Trump of having an affair with her and paying her $130,000 to keep quiet about it. Despite Daniels losing the lawsuit to be released from the nondisclosure agreement, but then Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s lawyer was arrested through the Mueller Investigation. Once he was, he stated under oath that he paid Daniels at the direction of Donald Trump.
5. Trump Separates Immigrant Families At The Border / Immigrant Caravan
Wikimedia Commons
It just wouldn’t be politics without some classic humanitarian issues and fearmongering from the people in power, would it?
2018 saw an increase in immigration across the border, both illegal and legal. However, it also saw an increase in immigrant children being ripped away from their parents and placed into literal internment camps while they awaited trial or deportation.
Not only this, but in the later half of the year, a large caravan of immigrants came towards America from our neighbors to the south. These were not illegal immigrants, but rather people seeking legal asylum from their own violent countries. But that didn’t stop members of the GOP insisting that these were lawbreakers coming to ignore our immigration laws and instead jumping the walls. This was one of the most talked about issues of November and December as they kept closing, and then the story just mysteriously disappeared as they made it to America and… nothing happened.
4. The Blue Wave Contains Minorities, Women and LGBT
Many people will say that midterm elections are more important than the presidential election, and with that came the 2018 midterms with record breaking results and turnout. These midterms were supposed to be when democrats took back the house and senate, and eventually impeached the president. However, the blue wave was bit like a blue splash, with democrats taking back the house but not the senate. However, despite this, Democrats undoubetly won an uphill battle and turned the house in their favor.
Also, with the midterm election, came many firsts. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a minority woman, became the ever female of the House, at only age 29. Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland from Kansas and New Mexico, both became the first Native American women elected to congress. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaid both became the first female muslim members of the house. Jared Polis also became the first openly gay governor in the history of the nation. Despite your opinions of who won the midterms, it is undoubtable to say that the midterm was a win for diversity and representation in politics.
3. Massive Strides Made between North and South Korea
2018 saw a monumental occurance when peace talks actually began between North and South Korea. The leaders of the two countries across crossed each other country lines at the Demilitarized Zone and shook hands.
However, this massive and hopeful news obviously would not come without some news from our own local embarassment: The President. Naturally, Trump took credit for the entire peace talks between the two Koreas, and even said he and Kim Jong-Un “fell in love” over “beautiful letters” at a truly bizarre campaign rally.
2.Indictments, Convictions, and Lies: The Mueller Investigation
While it did not only take place in 2018, the Special Counsel Investigation by Robert Mueller continued in 2018, and saw several immense updates during the course of the year. A year big enough to warrant its own day by day timeline, 2018 saw Michael Cohen being sentenced to prison for making false statements, Paul Manafort pleading guilty and being found guilty of ten different charges, and Rick Gates pleaded guilty to two conspiracy charges. Not only these, but also charges against twenty-six Russian nationals were brought by Mueller as well as charges against three Russian organizations. Also, the Mueller Investigation so far has cost twenty-five million dollars, but in uncovering tax fraud has brought in almost forty-eight million dollars, meaning that not only has it been uncovering criminals but also a smart investment too.
However, with the successful investigation going underway, President Trump also has spoken out against the investigation many times. Most famously when he simply tweeted “WITCH HUNT” and nothing else at eight in the morning. Unfortunately for the Salem Witches, it seems Trump has forgotten them by saying the Mueller investigation is the greatest witch hunt in history.
1. Brett Kavanaugh Gets Appointed Despite Everything
Wikimedia Commons
And of course, the most important event in 2018 was the entire circus revolving around Brett Kavanaugh. After the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Donald Trump appointed Washington DC attorney Brett Kavanaugh to replace his seat to little fanfare. However, this all changed when multiple sexual assault allegations came out against Kavanaugh, with the most famous and detailed account coming from Dr. Christine Ford. Ford alleged that Kavanaugh forcefully groped her at a party when they were in high school and following this even more women came out speaking about Kavanaugh’s anti-woman behavior.
This quickly turned into the political standoff of the century, with GOP members speaking in support of Kavanaugh and Democrat’s speaking against Kavanaugh. Screaming, crying and yelling all happened during the appointment hearings, and all came from Kavanaugh. Despite all the evidence and fanfare however, Ford and Kavanaugh eventually faced off in the senate chambers both offering up testimonies, and the committee eventually agreed to pass Kavanaugh along. This is truly one of the most important things to happen in 2018 politics, as it will have lasting effects for literally the rest of Kavanaugh’s years as a Supreme Court justice, and also shows the countries growing ideals about the #MeToo movement and sexual assault in America.
