There are many points in history where a dictator made their country permanently worse. Argentina was once among the wealthiest democracies in the world, until a dictator seized power in 1930 - it took 53 years to restore democratic governance and their economy still isn't back on track.

This rings true for much of South America at one point or another. Lots of African nations. Several in SE Asia as well.

Heck, just in the last few years we've seen several countries regress by a decade or more because of military coups or similar.

Really, if you look at many countries that haven't been a world power, this has happened once or twice in recent memory.

According to Wikipedia, “in 1929, Argentina was wealthy by world standards, but the prosperity ended after 1929 with the worldwide Great Depression.” It was presumably the collapsing economy which caused the military coup, not the other way around.

Do you have a better example? Or is that it?

Everyone recovers from a sickness. Until they don't.

> we've come back from it

We as a species have come back from it, yes. But generally after millions of victims are killed, and what is left over is very different than what existed prior.

Sure... As a different government.

I assume parent is talking about the functional end of this iteration of the United States as a political entity.

> At practically every point in history where a government or dictator goes too far, we've come back from it.

Not everyone.

It can take a good long time though. It's Juche Year 114 in North Korea and the Kim dynasty remains firmly in control.

Everyone except those who died in the camps.

And under the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.