4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Looking ahead to 2021, we consider Joe Biden’s domestic-policy agenda: faced with a pandemic and an economic crisis, where will he start? To what extent will the new president be able to heal America’s deep cultural divides and how will state-level politics influence his policies? Also, how will the Republican party evolve in 2021? Tom Standage hosts.
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0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the World Ahead on Economist Radio. I'm Tom Standage, Deputy Editor |
0:09.2 | at the Economist. In this Future Gazing Podcast series, we consider provocative prophecies |
0:14.4 | and speculative scenarios to gain a different perspective on the present and help us better |
0:19.1 | prepare for what might come next. |
0:22.0 | Today we're looking at the year ahead for America. We'll ask some of our US correspondents |
0:26.7 | for their predictions, drawing on their contributions to the Economist's Future Gazing Annual, the |
0:32.4 | World in 2021. In particular, we'll be asking what's on the domestic policy agenda for |
0:38.0 | President-elect Joe Biden, including, can the new President really heal America's deep |
0:43.7 | cultural divides? |
0:45.3 | I don't think either side in the cultural war is about to pack up and go home. |
0:49.7 | How will state-level politics influence Joe Biden's policies? |
0:53.6 | We've been arrested in America in 2021. We'll be looking to America's two largest states, |
0:58.4 | Texas and California to see which model works most effectively. |
1:02.4 | And meanwhile, how will the Republican Party evolve in 2021? |
1:07.0 | We can expect a Trumpish party, but I think I may be wrong, not a Trump party going forward. |
1:13.8 | 2020 has been one of the most difficult years in recent American history. More than 300,000 |
1:22.6 | people have died of COVID-19. More than 10 million jobs have been lost. And racial grievances |
1:28.4 | highlighted by the Black Lives Matter protests have been inflamed by the President's race baiting |
1:33.5 | on the campaign trail. |
1:36.6 | Donald Trump's refusal to accept the election result has even tested the foundations of |
1:41.5 | American democracy. But his defeat marked the end of one of the most divisive presidencies |
1:47.8 | in American history. Now, a once-in-a-century pandemic has created the opportunity for |
... |
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