For the first time in U.S. history a Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy, has been voted out of office.  

Now, how many times have you heard a newscaster say, “for the first time in history,” or that something was “unprecedented” or something similar?  This event is yet another one of the many rock bottoms reached since the beginning of Trump’s Republican Party.  

Donald Trump was the first U.S. President to be twice-impeached, under federal investigation and found liable by a jury for sexual misconduct, among many other “firsts.”  

It feels like every other day America is hearing about another horrible precedent set by the former President and his Republican Party.  We are being desensitized to this catastrophic downward trend as it seems like the news has become a broken record when it comes to historically awful events.  

Of course it is true that horrible things, especially in the political sphere, have been happening forever.  In fact, psychologist Adam Mastroianni explained in his essay “Your Brain Has Tricked You Into Thinking Everything Is Worse”  for The New York Times that people have a tendency to always think that their time in history is the worst.  

According to Mastroianni, an overwhelming majority of people think that people were more moral at some point in the past.  He described a survey that has been held since 1949, and found that people consistently had this pessimistic view.  

He described how “overwhelmingly, people believe that humans are less kind, honest, ethical and moral today than they were in the past,” so it’s certainly reasonable to be suspicious of this claim that Trump- and post Trump-America is a new low, especially through a historical lens.  

However, Trump’s case is one that is undeniably historic.  

As aforementioned, the Republican Party (particularly Trump) has been doing things that have never been done before in American history.  Few would argue against the fact that Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal–which happened over half a century ago–and the subsequent coverup dispelled many Americans’ pride and trust in the government and politicians.  

Similarly, Trump’s countless scandals and rock-bottoms have had many effects.  

Watergate made people very seriously question the legitimacy and moral compass of their government for arguably the first time.  In a parallel way, these countless recent scandals, indictments, investigations, impeachments and even plain-old embarrassments have expanded on that impact greatly by forcing Americans to feel an even greater sense of shame in their government.  

While all of these new lows may not be the worst that American society has ever seen, and while humans have proven to have significant hindsight bias, they are resulting in an undoing of many democratic norms.  From extremist Republicans ousting their own Speaker to a former President seemingly perpetually on trial, the status quo is certainly being shifted, and not in a good way.