Today’s United States presidential election is arguably the most important election not just nationally, but also the entire world. Yet a significant number of Americans, disillusioned with the lack of real choice on offer (as there was in the UK’s recent general election), will certainly stay at home than vote for two equally bad candidates.
Competing for the right to lead the most powerful democracy in the world is between the current vice-president, Democrat Kamala Harris (who became candidate at the last moment), and controversial former president and businessman Republican Donald Trump. Opinion polls show both candidates literally at a dead heat. Unlike in other democracies the election is decided not by the popular vote, but by a system called the electoral college.
Despite having the support of most of the mainstream media, Harris’ campaign is being hampered by her being rather too close to current president Joe Biden, and for ongoing support for the Israeli government’s actions in the Middle East. Many Arab-American, black and progressive voters are said to be so angry that they are threatening to boycott the poll to stop her winning. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s continuing legal problems and his slow descent into spreading half-truths, lies and conspiracy theories (he continues to this day that he claimed to have won the 2020 election despite the fact that he lost both the electoral college and the popular vote) still surprisingly hasn’t turned some voters off, and support for him has held firm. Harris hopes to achieve what Hillary Clinton failed to do in 2016 to become the first female president, meanwhile Trump hopes to return for a second term.
In this electoral battle, most of the rest of the planet is watching on nervously….for obvious reasons, particularly at a time of near international turmoil at the brink of a third world war. Some commentators suggest that the crises in the likes of Ukraine and the Middle East will continue to dominate political thinking whoever wins the keys to the White House.