Happy Christmas and new year to you both. I am looking forward to your insights and discussions throughout 2023. Happy to see the introduction of ad support in the podcast.
Thanks as always for the insightful episode. I was surprised not to hear mention of the recently passed omnibus spending bill by the US Congress during your discussion of American political dysfunction.
It may be the case that politics on the other side of the pond is deeply divided but it could be argued that 2022 represents a turn back towards regular order.
You credit Biden with a broadly successful track record over the past 2 years but credit might equally be given to mainstream Republican voters who denied their party winnable seats in several key Senate elections. Trump’s nosediving poll numbers among likely Republican voters are another indication that the populist tide is beginning to recede on that side of the aisle.
American politics has structural faults and is governed more by convention and less by rules than we might have assumed pre-Trump. But when both parties can lard up a bill with $1.7 T in government spending, and when a disgraced carnival barker is reduced to selling NFTs, we may be further from civil war than you believe.
Thanks again for the terrific show and I hope you both enjoyed a rewarding Christmas break.
Thanks Fergal. Yes, the spending bill was significant (not least for the aid for Ukraine contained within it). There is a hope that the populist tide is waning, as you say, but plenty of people think Ron de Santis is just a thoughtful, more organised, version of Trump. And Sunak is just Johnson without the jokes. But it is the season for goodwill - and optimism so I'll just focus on the upside of Trump's fading star! Thanks again - have a great Christmas.
Thank you Keith. Appreciate your comments and i hope 2023 is good for you.
Happy Christmas and new year to you both. I am looking forward to your insights and discussions throughout 2023. Happy to see the introduction of ad support in the podcast.
Thanks Keith - and the same to you.
Yes, everybody seems to understand that to keep this thing going we needed to commercialise it, at least a little.
Cheers
Chris
Thanks as always for the insightful episode. I was surprised not to hear mention of the recently passed omnibus spending bill by the US Congress during your discussion of American political dysfunction.
It may be the case that politics on the other side of the pond is deeply divided but it could be argued that 2022 represents a turn back towards regular order.
You credit Biden with a broadly successful track record over the past 2 years but credit might equally be given to mainstream Republican voters who denied their party winnable seats in several key Senate elections. Trump’s nosediving poll numbers among likely Republican voters are another indication that the populist tide is beginning to recede on that side of the aisle.
American politics has structural faults and is governed more by convention and less by rules than we might have assumed pre-Trump. But when both parties can lard up a bill with $1.7 T in government spending, and when a disgraced carnival barker is reduced to selling NFTs, we may be further from civil war than you believe.
Thanks again for the terrific show and I hope you both enjoyed a rewarding Christmas break.
Thanks Fergal. Yes, the spending bill was significant (not least for the aid for Ukraine contained within it). There is a hope that the populist tide is waning, as you say, but plenty of people think Ron de Santis is just a thoughtful, more organised, version of Trump. And Sunak is just Johnson without the jokes. But it is the season for goodwill - and optimism so I'll just focus on the upside of Trump's fading star! Thanks again - have a great Christmas.