If you’re like most people, you probably can’t wait for 2020 to be over. At times, it seemed like every strand of society’s fabric was pulling apart: A bitter impeachment, followed by a global pandemic, followed by mass protests over horrific examples of police violence, followed by a contentious election that the loser still refuses to accept.
At other times, though, we witnessed inspiring moments of sacrifice and solidarity—healthcare workers heading into hospital wards day after day; marchers reaching across racial and political lines; scientists teaming up to create Covid-19 vaccines in record time.
As we approach the end of a head-spinning year, Politico Magazine is sharing a list of 20 articles that helped explain what we just lived through. In our most engaging story of the year, published just as Americans were starting to grasp the scope and gravity of the new pathogen sweeping the world, 34 big thinkers predicted what the post-Covid future would hold. In an election that held some big surprises about American voters, a writer traveled deep into Texas to find the root of Donald Trump’s strong Hispanic support there. There’s also the definitive account of Trump’s attempt to force the Michigan GOP to throw out the results of a valid election, and how one man stopped it—as well as an early profile of the lawyer driving Trump’s increasingly bizarre legal strategy. Keep going for deep dives on Joe Biden and his relationship with Obama, an original window into the Democratic civil war and a look at why police reform is so hard.
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