Lisa Kashinsky: The Teens: Decade of Trump

Dec. 30--The Teens have been a whirlwind of bitter divisiveness and violence, with changes of the political guard on both sides of the aisle that were welcomed by some but feared by others, and also dramatic innovation and prosperity.

Then-President Barack Obama's controversial signature achievement, Obamacare, kicked off the Teens as the big story of 2010 -- and fueled Republican Scott Brown's U.S. Senate win in blue Massachusetts. But the even more controversial and divisive election of President Trump in 2016 stands as the single most transformative event of these last 10 years -- cutting a sharp line in American politics between liberals and conservatives, coastal elites and those in the heartland who felt they were ignored, with a power struggle between sharply different visions of America's future that remains unresolved.

Donald Trump redefined the American political order with his stunning defeat of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a polarizing victory and he's now under a highly disputed partisan impeachment.

A businessman and real estate mogul with no prior political office, Trump capitalized on discontent with the political establishment to power his way to the White House.

Trump has passed broad tax cuts, began a dramatic rollback of regulations and appointed dozens of constitutionalist judges. Despite predictions the stock market would crash, the economy has boomed. He brought North Korea's Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table -- after dire warnings he was provoking a war. He forced the renegotiation of trade relations with Mexico and Canada, and launched a trade war with China -- ignoring the threats of consequences. He was vilified for his crackdown on illegal immigration and a freeze on visas for several Muslim nations, though his supporters say his tactics matched those of the Obama administration. He faced a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election -- but wasn't charged, though special prosecutor Robert Mueller stopped short of exonerating him.

Trump is now the third president to be impeached, after the Democratic House majority on a party-line vote accused him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress based on a July phone call in which Trump allegedly pressured the Ukrainian president into investigating Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump enters 2020 awaiting trial in the Republican-led U.S. Senate, which is expected to toss the charges.

Boston under attack: The defining event of the past decade in this city was the deadly terrorist blasts that turned the celebratory finish line of the Boston Marathon into a crime scene on April 15, 2013. Islamic extremist brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev -- ethnic Chechens who immigrated from Kazakhstan -- set off two bombs along crowded Boylston Street, killing Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu., 23. Three days later, the Tsarnaevs shot and killed MIT police officer Sean Collier, 27. In a Watertown shootout, MBTA officer Richard Donohue, 33, was critically wounded. Boston Police officer Dennis Simmonds, 28, injured in the Watertown shootout, died in April 2014.

Tamerlan was killed in Watertown. The younger Tsarnaev, after a daylong manhunt, was found hiding in a boat. Now on federal death row in Colorado, Tsarnaev is fighting his conviction and death sentence.

Boston's leadership changed hands for the first time in two decades in 2014 when Martin Walsh succeeded the city's longest-serving mayor, Thomas M. Menino, who died of cancer later that year. The governorship, meanwhile, returned to Republican hands with Charlie Baker's victories in 2014 and 2018.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley's stunning defeat of incumbent Mike Capuano last year was a rebuke of the party's establishment, which led to this year's challenges of sitting U.S. Sen. Edward Markey. Brown lost in 2012 to current U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, now a leading Democratic candidate for president.

Ten years after 9/11, the U.S. military hunted down and killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. It was hailed as a major blow to the terrorist network that drew the United States into war.

But the Islamic State emerged in 2011 in Iraq and Syria after the United States exited the region. In 2015, ISIS-inspired terrorists killed 129 people and wounded 352 in Paris. In 2016, ISIS-inspired terrorists killed 31 people and injured 270 in Brussels. Trump sent U.S. troops into Iraq and Syria, largely destroying the organization. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself this year while pursued by U.S. soldiers.

Smartphones became ubiquitous in The Teens. Facebook, which had allowed family, friends and businesses to connect with each other, was revealed as having extensively data-mined its users. Twitter became a major means to pushing out information, bypassing traditional media. But it also became notorious for hosting vile personal and political attacks.

Murderous Southie gangster Whitey Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig were captured in 2011 in in Santa Monica after 16 years on the lam. In 2013, Bulger was convicted for his role in 11 murders. In 2018, then 89, he was beaten to death in a West Virginia federal prison.

The 2012 the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., prompted a national debate over gun control. The debate between those who want to ban weapons and 2nd Amendment advocates has resurfaced after mass shootings in San Bernardino, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland and El Paso.

Occupy Wall Street. Black Lives Matter. #MeToo: Occupy Wall Street kicked off a decade of social protests in 2011 with a protest in Manhattan with the rallying cry, "We are the 99 Percent."

Black Lives Matter emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, accused of killing unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, with riots following killings by police in Ferguson, Mo., and other cities, and incidents such as the execution of two police officers in New York City. In Boston, then-BPD Superintendent William Gross faced down protesters after his officers shot and killed a man who had shot a detective in the face.

And the #MeToo movement, combating sexual harassment, started with accusations against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein, and led to allegations against actor Kevin Spacey, comedian Louis C.K., NBC news anchor Matt Lauer and others. In Massachusetts, the news that casino mogul Steve Wynn had paid out settlements forced an investigation of the license for the Encore casino in Everett.

But Trump, the top story of The Teens, will remain the top story as the new decade starts, as embittered Democrats seek to remove him from office both by impeachment and in the 2020 election.

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