We are living through history in the making, and it is stressful. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer asks media journalist Brian Stelter and Vanderbilt historian Nicole Hemmer how future generations will view the current political moment in the United States.
They’ll learn, Stelter says, that “the struggle for a true multiracial democracy was incredibly volatile, was in times even scary." He points out that this tumultuous period is characterized by fierce battles between figures like Donald Trump, who offer simplistic solutions, and figures like Joe Biden, who resist such approaches. They’ll learn that “figures like Donald Trump came forward with easy solutions that actually weren't that easy at all” and that “figures like Joe Biden came forward to try to resist the Trumps of the world."
Nicole Hemmer echoes Stelter's sentiments, describing the current era as a testing ground for multiracial democracy. “This will either be a story of counter-majoritarian institutions stamping out public desires, or it will be a story of reforms that remade those institutions in order to make them reflect the will of the people.” We'll either be a more or less democratic United States after this moment, Hemmer adds, and what happens in the next months and years will decide that.'
Watch full episode: Trump, Biden & the US election: What could be next?
Season 7 of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, launches nationwide on public television stations (check local listings).
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