{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/9a03fe9e-1ff0-4dcc-b3f6-50bd1f016ea4/026f4a4b-b1e0-4533-bf5b-65febb079c60?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"What Trump Means to Us","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6195701f2eacc3a36070252a/619570bccb3c660012e3ced7.jpg?height=200","description":"<p>Helen and David talk about what four years of Trump - and of talking (and talking) about Trump - have meant for their thinking about America and about democratic politics.&nbsp;Is it possible to give a balanced picture of Trump's presidency?&nbsp;Have the last four years followed a pattern or has it just been chaos?&nbsp;What is the likely legacy of Trump's extraordinary level of global fame?&nbsp;Plus we discuss whether 2020 marks the beginning of the 'short' twenty-first century and what that means for Trump's place in it.</p><p><br></p><p>Talking Points:</p><p><br></p><p>Will historians see 2020 as the start of the ‘short’ 21st century?</p><ul><li>If so, Trump belongs to the interregnum. He’s not a dramatic break.&nbsp;</li><li>Certainly there are continuities, for example, in the Middle East. But there are also discontinuities with China and Iran.</li><li>Is the pandemic a fundamental watershed?&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Is American power in decline?&nbsp;</p><ul><li>In some ways, the US is more powerful this decade than it was the decade before.</li><li>The US has a strong domestic energy supply again.</li><li>The Fed is still an international lender of last resort.</li><li>One of the consequences of the pandemic was that in March the Fed effectively extended an indirect dollar credit line in principle to China.&nbsp;</li><li>The story about rising Chinese power is not straightforwardly at American expense.&nbsp;</li><li>The domestic political turmoil in the US is going to be consequential to the American-Chinese strategic competition.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>The Republican party got what they wanted out of a Trump presidency, the courts.</p><ul><li>In that sense, 2020 could be another watershed year: pre-Barrett and post-Barrett.</li><li>Although history of the court suggests that partisan affiliations don’t always predict outcomes.</li><li>Since the late 1960s/early 1970s, American politics has become judicialized.&nbsp;</li><li>The crucial point is the intense politicization of these decisions.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Trump invokes huge depths of revulsion in many Americans. Trying to stand back and look at his presidency historically can seem like moral indifference.</p><ul><li>The narrative about Trump as a singular evil is the lens through which many people have lived their lives in the past four years.</li><li>This narrative takes a pretty distorted view of the American past as well as the state of the republic before Trump.</li><li>Trump seems incapable of understanding the distinction between the president as head of state and the president as head of government.</li><li>Geopolitically, the Trump presidency has made a difference, especially in relation to China.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Mentioned in this Episode:</p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2016/9-president-trump\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Our post-election episode from 2016</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2020/279-one-term-presidents\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Our last episode with Gary Gerstle</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2020/281-trump-stress-test\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Our last episode with Sarah Churchwell</a></li><li><a href=\"https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/politics-podcast-is-britain-in-the-middle-of-a-constitutional-crisis/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Our most recent crossover with 538</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n19/david-runciman/his-fucking-referendum\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">David’s review of David Cameron’s memoirs</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p>Further Learning:</p><ul><li><a href=\"https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Age-of-Extremes-by-E-J-Hobsbawm/9780349106717\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Hobsbawm’s<em> Age of Extremes: The Short 20th Century</em></a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n19/david-runciman/i-didn-t-do-anything-wrong-in-the-first-place\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"...","author_name":"David Runciman and Catherine Carr"}