You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is one of the more left-wing voices in the US House of Representatives.

Jim McGovern's district is in Democratic Massachusetts,

and over two decades he's forged a reputation as a proponent of radical, economic,

and social reform at home and human rights overseas.

Right now, progressives in America are looking at the national opinion polls

and sensing an historic opportunity. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump,

and widespread unrest following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis,

Donald Trump is in trouble.

Polls have him trailing Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden by eight points or more,

with the election just five months away. But dig deeper into America's mood and things are more

complicated. Trump supporters are passionately fired up. Biden supporters,

not so much. Young and liberal and black Americans don't turn out to vote as reliably as older

white conservatives. So what must the Democratic Party do to seize this moment of opportunity? Well, Congressman Jim McGovern

joins me now from Worcester, Massachusetts. Welcome to Hard Talk. Happy to be with you. From the outside,

Congressman, the United States looks like a country that is divided in on itself, that is almost at war with itself.

Does it feel that way to you?

Well, I don't ever recall a time where our country has been more polarized.

And I think the current occupant of the White House is responsible for much of that polarization,

and much of the chaos and the uncertainty that exists here.

And so I'm deeply troubled by it, but I'm hoping that the next election will produce a better result, and we can get back to healing

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