Talk:History of the United States (2008–present)

lead
The government enacted large loans...'. Besides the diction problem, what loans were these? There was economic aid (grants, more or less), and investments in infrastructure and education, etc. It's a bit too ambiguous, since I can't tie it in with anything in the text. Sbalfour (talk) 20:37, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

Summary Section
It's bloated and biased. I'm not sure how to fix. I'm trying to edit into more neutral language, and rely on less opinion. Since this is current events, I'm not expecting much success. Digitalbarbarian (talk) 15:55, 3 July 2019 (UTC)


 * A good example is comparing how much of a positive light was cast on Obama's administration compared to Trump. 2601:644:877F:F6D8:205C:C567:D1E3:6AA1 (talk) 23:21, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Rv "illegal"
Removed spurious addition of "illegal" re: Trump's anti-immigrant policies. The "Muslim ban", family separation etc. affected legal immigrants, asylum seekers and so forth. –Roscelese (talk &sdot; contribs) 15:11, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

just wanted to point out
that the introduction for this section is unusually long, compared to other articles of past time periods. I don't know how to fix it, but ppl have decided to use this page as a dump for current events. I guess it'll sort itself out with time, and this is just an inherent problem of history articles covering the present.MDaxo (talk) 04:31, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

"Crisis in America" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Crisis in America. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 July 30 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 06:41, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

Split Article into History of the United States (2008 - 201?) and History of the United States (201? - present)
Let's be frank, this country does not feel like it did in 2008. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RayaanIrani (talk • contribs) 22:03, 11 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm staring an RfC on that. Thanoscar21talkcontributions 00:45, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

RfC: Should this article be split?
Should this article be split to History of the United States (2008-2021) and History of the United States (2021 to present) with the breaking point being Biden's inauguration? Thanoscar21talkcontributions 00:50, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes — WP:ARTICLESIZE has 100kB as the splitting size, and this is almost 125. Thanoscar21talkcontributions 00:50, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Splitting an article is far from obligatory when its text goes above a certain size. WP:ARTICLESIZE includes the admonition of WP:HASTE that states There is no need for haste in splitting an article when it starts getting large. Sometimes an article simply needs to be big to give the subject adequate coverage.
 * Besides, the articles on the various periods in the History of the United States are far from uniform in size, and with good reason: 1776–1789 is 50,670 bytes; 1789–1849 103,793; 1849–1865 60,435 ; 1865–1918 107,940; 1918–1945 82,205 (the separate article Military history of the United States during World War II is 132,806 bytes in size); 1945–1964 71,841; 1964–1980 90,968; 1980–1991 53,742; 1991–2008 96,657; and (2008–present) 124,569 bytes. A trimming down the road is probably inevitable, akin to the historians' heads cooling down as time passes. But we should hold off hasty splitting. -The Gnome (talk) 12:31, 27 January 2021 (UTC)


 * No -  But it does need shortening and there may be a case for creating articles from some of the material -Snowded TALK 08:16, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * No. We can't pick an ongoing event as the breaking point, as we have next to nothing to judge it's impact via sources, which is all we can actually base any such decision on.  I agree on just relying on standard trimming first; this is typical for articles covering recent events, as many things that seemed important at the time tend to drift towards irrelevance when viewed in hindsight.  --A&#8239;D&#8239;Monroe&#8239;III(talk)  01:28, 26 January 2021 (UTC)
 * No, strictly on the basis of the importance of events within the time frame. (As far as time lapsed and text size are concerned, there is no rule whatsoever: it evidently all depends on event importance.) Within the period 2008-present, we've had two presidencies in the U.S. and (probably thankfully!) few events that have been important enough to create a separate article for it. The current article, as above, is possibly overburdened in size, but, down the road, we eventually trim down articles about recent times & events. -The Gnome (talk) 13:37, 26 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Split this history article into one article covering a 13-year period and one article covering a (so far) less than two-week period? Common sense says no. And User:A D Monroe III makes a good point – we don't yet have the historical perspective to judge whether or not Biden's inauguration will eventually make sense as a break point. —Granger (talk · contribs) 22:39, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

Add mention of increasing marijuana legalization
At some point, I think cannabis legalization should be mentioned in the article. I was thinking of adding this paragraph, although I'm not sure where to put it, and it would seem odd to have a section by itself. "Cannabis is prohibited by federal law, but throughout the 2010s and 2020s, it has been legalized by a number of individual states. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational cannabis use. As of June 2021, 18 states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, while 27 states have decriminalized it. As of May 2021, medical cannabis is permitted in 36 states."

—Lights and freedom (talk ~ contribs) 05:21, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

New article for U.S. History from 2020 onward?
This has been brought up before but does anyone support creating a new article for United States history from 2020 onward? I feel like there were massive changes that year and it's worthy of starting a new era. Should there be an article for U.S. History from 2020-present featuring events like COVID Pandemic, Capitol siege and Qanon movement, intensifying culture wars (BLM protests, LGBT rights rollbacks), reproductive rights rollbacks, Afghanistan withdrawal and Hamas conflict, maybe something about the Ukraine War as well. Basically covering the end of the Trump presidency through Biden's presidency. There have been talks of splitting this page but not of a specific year and I feel as is 2020 is a major game-changer. 2600:4040:9E16:3200:3C4E:A9CC:B3F7:AB94 (talk) 00:52, 20 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Support, but not now - I imagine that this will happen in the future, but it probably shouldn't happen now, since we're only almost 4 years into that timeframe. Probably the end of Biden's term(s) would make more sense. I also think that 2016, not 2020, would be the better break point, since Trump's election marked a turning point in American history in a way that Obama's simply didn't. I think the history of 2008-2016 would be better included in the 1991-2008 (or should I say, 1991-2016) article. AwesomeSaucer9 (talk) 04:24, 24 October 2023 (UTC)
 * On second pass, I see that someone in the talk page of 1991-2008 American history suggested that the 1991-2008 page itself be split into an article for 1991-2001 (because of 9/11) and then 2001-2016 (again leaving room for 2016-present). I think that this would also be a solid idea and a good reflection of the "major" turning points in American politics and society. AwesomeSaucer9 (talk) 04:38, 24 October 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm not so sure, I'd say the COVID pandemic was a more significant turning point in U.S. history than either 9/11 or Trump's election. As I stated initially the sociopolitical trends that had started in the 2010s (BLM, Trumpism, etc.) became a lot more intense post 2020. Similarly the 1945-1964 and 1964-1980 articles both cover the Civil Rights Movement, which also became a lot more intense after 1964. Maybe this topic can be brought back up following the 2024 election? 2600:4040:9E16:3200:F553:E4EC:513:CB5F (talk) 15:34, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
 * I think it might be good to start a new discussion specifically on when the best "breaking points" are for American history. I imagine people would have a lot to share. Personally, I would think that the best ones would be, since the end of WW2: Kennedy's assassination (1963), Reagan's election (1980), the end of the Cold War (1991), 9/11 (2001), and Trump's election (2016). Definitely happy to be convinced another way on any of these, though. AwesomeSaucer9 (talk) 20:31, 27 October 2023 (UTC)
 * "Reagan's election (1980)" We already have separate articles both for the Presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) and the still ongoing Reagan era (1980-). What else can be covered? Dimadick (talk) 15:50, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:History of the United States (1776–1789) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 00:33, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Key events to include
I think that the assassination attempt on president Trump is an extremely important event that should be included in the "key events" section

I would also add the presidential debate, as it completely destroyed the mainstream media's perception of Joe Biden and led to a massive loss of confidence in him from the left 2600:4040:444D:FA00:D88:DA7:5323:1B92 (talk) 01:56, 16 July 2024 (UTC)