0:07

We're at a very pivotal point in our country.

0:10

Either we descend into a lawless

0:12

abyss of open borders, rampant killings,

0:16

or we evict Joe Biden and the

0:18

Democrats from the White House and we

0:20

make America great again. My

0:24

lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom

0:27

and democracy. The

0:29

American story of

0:31

resentment, revenge and retribution, that's

0:33

not me. I

0:35

was born amid World War II when

0:38

America stood for the freedom of the world. I'm

0:42

John Prido, U.S. editor at The Economist.

0:45

I've been covering America for 10 years, and

0:47

the question I get asked the most is this.

0:50

Why are these two unpopular old

0:53

men running against each other for

0:55

the world's most demanding job again?

0:57

The answer lies in the peculiar

0:59

politics of Joe Biden and Donald

1:01

Trump's generation. I watched

1:03

in horror as two of my heroes like

1:06

many of you did, Dr. King and Bobby

1:08

Cunnister, assassinated. Since 1992,

1:10

every President, bar one, has been

1:12

a white man born into what

1:14

now seems like another world, the

1:17

America of the 1940s. I

1:20

grew up in Southern California. As

1:23

a teenager, it was great, you could drive,

1:25

drive up and down the

1:27

coast. This generation was dealt

1:29

pocket aces. Their parents defeated Nazism

1:32

and later won the Cold War.

1:34

Post-World War II life in America

1:36

was very romantic. We

1:38

were a society that was

1:41

on the move and everybody felt that.

1:43

They hit the jobs market at an

1:45

unmatched period of wealth creation. The

1:47

first year I was at Goldman Sachs, they asked

1:49

whether I was working for the mob when I

1:51

got my first bonus.

1:55

This generation did usher in an

1:57

awful lot of social changes that I think people will look

1:59

for. back on and think that they

2:01

were necessary and important. They've spurred giant

2:04

leaps in technology and in racial and

2:06

gender equality. And yet,

2:08

their last act in politics sees

2:10

the two main parties accusing each

2:12

other of posing an existential threat

2:14

to American democracy. The baby

2:17

boom generation, we got elitist and excessive

2:19

and wealth became a prominent

2:21

feature and sort of being out of

2:23

touch with working Americans and being bicoastal

2:25

and all that stuff, I

2:28

think has been part of the problem. And

2:31

that is in some ways, I think, the result

2:33

of a lot of these movements

2:35

that catapulted us forward in good

2:37

ways. As the boomers near

2:39

the end of their political journey, I'm setting

2:42

out to make sense of their inheritance and

2:44

their legacy. I'll reveal

2:46

the mindset of a generation during

2:48

six crucial years, starting

2:50

in one year of turmoil 1968 and ending in

2:53

another 2020. I

2:58

of course miss my parents terribly. They both

3:00

passed away some time ago. But

3:02

I have thought on occasion, is

3:04

it better that they're not here to see this?

3:08

Beginning in July 2024, unlock

3:11

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3:13

generation that blew up American

3:15

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