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We're at a very pivotal point in our country. Either we descend into a lawless abyss of open borders, rampant killings, or we evict Joe Biden and the Democrats from the White House and we make America great again. My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. The American story of resentment, revenge and retribution, that's not me.
I was born in mid-World War II when America stood for the freedom of the world. I'm John Priddoe, US editor at The Economist. I've been covering America for 10 years. And the question I get asked the most is this: Why are these two unpopular old men running against each other for the world's most demanding job again? The answer lies in the peculiar politics of Joe Biden and Donald Trump's generation.
I watched in horror as two of my heroes, like many of you did, Dr. King and Bobby Cunningham, were assassinated. Since 1992, every president bar one has been a white man born into what now seems like another world, the America of the 1940s. I grew up in Southern California.
As a teenager, it was great. You know, you could drive, 16, drive up and down the coast. This generation was dealt pocket aces. Their parents defeated Nazism and later won the Cold War. Post-World War II life in America was very romantic. We were a society that was on the move and everybody felt that. They hit the jobs market at an unmatched period of wealth creation.
They've spurred 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 posing an existential threat to American democracy. The baby boom generation, we got elitist and excessive and wealth became a prominent feature and sort of being out of touch with working Americans and being bi-coastal and all that stuff, I think has been part of the problem.
And that is in some ways, I think, the result of a lot of these movements that catapulted us forward in good ways. As the boomers near the end of their political journey, I'm setting out to make sense of their inheritance and their legacy. I'll reveal the mindset of a generation during six crucial years, starting in one year of turmoil, 1968, and ending in another, 2020.
I, of course, miss my parents terribly. They both passed away some time ago. But I have thought on occasion, is it better that they're not here to see this? Beginning in July 2024, unlock all episodes of Boom, the generation that blew up American politics, with Economist Podcasts+. Just search Economist Podcasts for our latest subscription offers to start listening today.