Trailer: Boom!
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2024
⏱️ 4 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Why are two old, unpopular men the main candidates for the world’s most demanding job? It’s the question John Prideaux, The Economist’s US editor, gets asked the most. And the answer lies in the peculiar politics of the baby boomers.
Since 1992, every American president bar one has been a white man born in the 1940s. That run looks likely to span 36 years - not far off the age of the median American. This cohort was born with aces in their pockets. Their parents defeated Nazism and won the cold war. They hit the jobs market at an unmatched period of wealth creation. They have benefitted from giant leaps in technology, and in racial and gender equality.
And yet, their last act in politics sees the two main parties accusing each other of wrecking American democracy. As the boomers near the end of their political journey, John Prideaux sets out to make sense of their inheritance and their legacy.
Launching July 2024.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're at a very pivotal point in our country. |
| 0:07.0 | We're at a very pivotal point in our country. |
| 0:10.0 | Either we descend into a lawless abyss of open borders rampant killings or we evict |
| 0:16.9 | Joe Biden and the Democrats from the White House and we make America great again. |
| 0:24.3 | My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. |
| 0:29.0 | The American story of resentment, revenge and retribution. |
| 0:33.6 | That's not me. |
| 0:35.5 | I was born amid World War II |
| 0:38.1 | when America stood for the freedom of the world. |
| 0:42.2 | I'm John Prido, US editor at The Economist. I've been covering America for 10 years and the |
| 0:47.8 | question I get asked the most is this. Why are these two unpopular old men running against each other for the world's most |
| 0:55.1 | demanding job again? The answer lies in the peculiar politics of Joe Biden and |
| 1:00.8 | Donald Trump's generation. |
| 1:03.1 | I watched in horror as two of my heroes like many of you did, Dr King and Bobby |
| 1:07.8 | Kennedy were assassinated. |
| 1:09.6 | Since 1992, every President, Bar One, has been a white man born into what now seems like another |
| 1:16.2 | world, the America of the 1940s. |
| 1:20.6 | I grew up in Southern California. As a teenager it was great and you could drive |
| 1:25.4 | 16 drive up and down the coast. This generation was dealt pocket aces. Their parents |
| 1:31.5 | defeated Nazism and later won the Cold War. |
| 1:34.4 | Post-World War II life in America was very romantic. |
| 1:38.4 | We were a society that was on the move and everybody felt that. They hit the jobs market at an |
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