“The elites look down on the uneducated” | George Packer on American crisis and renewal

Is Reagan’s idea of “Free America” dead? Why was America offered humanitarian aid from Russia? What made Trump able to prey on the discontent of Americans? How did the George Floyd protests change in their aims?

How, in a few decades, did the United States transform from a broadly prosperous middle-class country, with relatively healthy institutions and competent leaders, to a nation defined by discredited elites, hollowed-out institutions, and blatant inequalities? In conversation with Matthew d’Ancona, legendary journalist George Packer joins us with a bracing account of our current crisis and of how a new era of civic revitalisation may bring it to an end.

George Packer is a staff writer for the Atlantic and a former staff writer for the New Yorker. He is the author of The Unwinding: Thirty Years of American Decline, The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, Blood of the Liberals, and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century. He has been featured on MSNBC, PBC NewsHour, Breaking Points, Channel 4 News, The Realignment, Commonwealth Club of California, Al Franken, The Choice, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Film Archives, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CaNANDian, and the JFK Library.

Matthew d’Ancona is an award-winning journalist and author. He is an Editor and Partner at Tortoise Media, and was previously Editor of The Spectator, lifting the magazine to record circulation. He has written columns for the Evening Standard, Guardian, Daily and Sunday Telegraph, GQ, and the International New York Times. He has featured on RSA and BBC Newsnight

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I dont think he did. It was the identity poitics people. Those choosing not to be pigeon holed wanted to make our own choicd.