The custom on this blog on New Year’s Day is for readers to predict what they think will happen over the course of the year ahead. Then, once the year is over, on or around the next New Year’s Eve, we will revisit those predictions and see who made the best one. . . .
The predictions can be weighty or light, serious or whimsical. Winning predictions will likely be highly specific. They tend to seem highly unlikely at the time they are made, but then, to our surprise, they happen anyway. The winning prediction makes us think, “How could anyone possibly know THAT was going to happen?”
Yesterday, we checked the 2019 predictions, the best of which was made by Joe. So today we start the cycle over again with predictions for 2020.
I’ll go first:
(1) If Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or other hard-left candidate, Donald Trump would win. But the Democrats end up with a supposedly “moderate” ticket headed by Joe Biden, who beats Trump handily. Republicans respond to their defeat by purging the Trumpian elements from the party. This includes writing out evangelicals and pro-lifers from their former dominant role. The Republican party draws back from courting the working class and promoting protectionist economic policies. In effect, this means reverting back to being the party of big business. The new Republican brand will present itself as socially tolerant. Its dominant ideology will be a moderate libertarianism, retaining the party’s appeal to freedom-loving Americans and free-market capitalism, while allowing for abortion, LGBT issues, etc.
Conversely, if the Democrats lose, they will purge their party of “extremism.”
Of course, we will only know who wins the election at the very end of 2020, and any new political branding won’t take place until 2021. But still, I’m projecting ahead.
(2) Soon after Great Britain pulls out of the European Union on January 31, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Trump will announce a trade agreement. This will grow to include Canada, Australia, and other English-speaking nations. This new “Anglo-sphere” will include African countries, such as Nigeria, and other former colonies that adopted English as their official language. The big prize will be India, with its vast population of potential consumers and emerging prosperity. India will replace China as our biggest trading partner.
Now it’s your turn. . . .
Finally, I leave you with two prayers for New Year’s, from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod One-Year Series Prayers and Three-Year Series Prayers:
Blessed Lord, You have brought us to the beginning of this new year. Forgive our past by the blood of Christ, and grant that we may number our days wisely and apply our hearts by Your wisdom so that we may make good use of the time You have granted to us until we fall asleep in death and awaken in the arms of our Savior. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
For the gift of time, and for a clear conscience through forgiveness, that we may let go of the past and embrace the future confident of God’s presence and grace, let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.
Image by Annick Vanblaere from Pixabay
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