America braces for election day clash of two stark visions

America is selecting its personal path ahead, and the stakes couldn’t be larger.

Each candidates supplied grim visions for the longer term in the event that they lose this election. Donald Trump stated the nation would “go to hell” and “instantly change into a communist nation” if he misplaced, whereas Kamala Harris described her opponent as a “fascist” who needs ” Unrestricted energy”.

Voters in key battleground states have been bombarded with marketing campaign adverts, a lot of which was designed to stoke worry. Given this local weather, it is no shock that Individuals surveyed report excessive ranges of tension.

“I do consider they’re protecting us residing in worry simply to get our votes,” Heather Suchek instructed me as Election Day approached in Wisconsin. She lives in a swing county in a swing state and plans to assist Trump as a result of, in her phrases, Harris’ financial plan is “horrible.”

However simply down the road, I additionally met registered unbiased Tracy Andropolis, who stated she would vote for Harris. “This is among the most essential elections of my lifetime. There are lots of issues which are up within the air,” she stated, including that she feared Trump would refuse to relinquish energy if he received.

Each expressed real issues about their candidates’ futures in the event that they misplaced, reflecting the existential temper amongst many citizens within the run-up to the election.

Ms. Andropolis additionally instructed me she didn’t consider the polls have been evenly matched. Not as a result of she has any actual proof, however as a result of she will be able to’t think about tens of millions of individuals planning to vote for Trump. She’s not the one one struggling to return to phrases with the race’s intimacy.

One factor I’ve discovered whereas touring this nation and speaking to voters is that America appears not solely clearly divided, but it surely looks like two completely different nations awkwardly coexisting on the identical piece of land.

Democrats reside primarily in cities and suburbs, Republicans primarily in rural areas. Increasingly Individuals are shifting to locations the place they share political beliefs with their neighbors. It isn’t onerous to determine these areas proper now, provided that yard indicators and placards usually mark out Trump and Harris territory.

However it’s unimaginable to reside endlessly in these unbiased political worlds. These two events are about to collide within the harsh realities of the election.

Regardless of the controversy, regardless of the controversy, there have to be a winner.

It is going to be surprising when some right here study the ultimate outcomes and understand that tens of tens of millions of their fellow Individuals really feel very otherwise than they do.

Each Trump and Harris have charted their very own historic, tumultuous paths to voting day.

I used to be one of many reporters who gathered exterior a Manhattan courthouse to witness Trump’s felony hush-money trial in April. Weeks later, he was discovered responsible, changing into the primary former or sitting president to be convicted. Many individuals requested on the time: Can a convicted felon actually re-enter the White Home?

However his authorized troubles and his claims that he was intentionally focused by the Biden administration have solely fueled his marketing campaign and angered his supporters. “They are not after me, they’re after you,” he usually stated.

“They’re weaponizing the felony justice system in opposition to their political opponents, and that is not proper,” one in all his supporters instructed me exterior the courthouse. One other stated: “I’ll struggle for this man till the day I die.”

A well-recognized sample emerged: With every indictment, his ballot numbers rose and donations poured in.

Assume again to the second final yr when his photograph was taken as a part of an election interference case in Georgia. It rapidly grew to become an iconic picture and is now emblazoned on many T-shirts I see at Trump rallies.

It is unimaginable to look again on the previous president’s wild journey to the polls with out the second that produced one other iconic picture and all however ended the marketing campaign fully.

When Trump was shot and killed by a would-be murderer in Butler, Pa., in July, the race and the nation have been profoundly shaken. As Secret Service brokers helped him to his toes, bleeding from his ears, he raised his fists and urged his supporters to struggle.

Simply 48 hours later, when he confirmed up at a celebration conference in Milwaukee, his ears coated with gauze, some within the crowd have been crying. I may see tears streaming down the face of one of many representatives standing close to me. That is Tina Ioane, she’s from American Samoa.

“He’s the anointed one,” she instructed me. “He was referred to as to steer our nation.”

Throughout this summer season’s election marketing campaign, Trump regarded invulnerable.

Democrats, however, are rising more and more annoyed with their prospects. There may be deep anxiousness that their candidate, Joe Biden, is just too previous to win re-election.

In late June, I watched his chaotic debate in opposition to Trump within the press room. There was a surprised silence as we watched Biden’s 50-year political profession primarily finish earlier than our eyes.

Besides, many who’ve publicly urged he ought to step down have been dismissed. The Biden marketing campaign even lashed out on the “bedwetting brigade” calling for his resignation.

In fact, it is solely a matter of time.

Days after the jubilant Republican conference in July, when it regarded unimaginable for Trump to lose, Biden introduced he was abandoning his re-election bid. The temper amongst Democratic supporters rapidly shifted from anxious pessimism to excited anticipation.

Any reservations they’d about whether or not Kamala Harris was the perfect candidate have been dispelled just a few weeks later at a joyful conference in Chicago. Individuals who have been resigned to failure are actually swept away by a wave of enthusiasm.

The election represented a chance to “transcend the bitter, cynical and divisive struggles of the previous,” she stated to cheers.

However the pleasure did not final lengthy. Harris struggled to keep up momentum after an preliminary surge within the polls. She seems to be rapidly profitable again conventional Democrats who do not assist Biden, however is discovering it harder to win over key undecided voters.

But Harris has repeatedly promoted this extra optimistic message. She has additionally made reproductive rights a cornerstone of her marketing campaign and hopes the problem will encourage massive numbers of girls to vote.

However as with all presidential elections, the problem is convincing those that are undecided.

I met Zoie Cheneau at a hair salon she owns in Atlanta, Georgia, lower than two weeks earlier than the election. She stated she had by no means been so unmotivated to vote.

“Proper now it is the lesser of two evils for me,” she stated, explaining that she would finally vote for Harris however thinks Trump may be higher for small companies.

“I’d be completely satisfied for a black lady to be president of the US,” she stated. “She’s going to win, I do know she’s going to win.”

Whereas some voters are anxious and consider the race is just too shut, supporters of each events have repeatedly expressed Ms. Chernow’s certainty in regards to the final result.

Many Harris supporters merely can’t perceive why she has not gone additional than a convicted felony who was publicly attacked and ridiculed by those that served within the earlier administration.

Trump supporters are equally alarmed that anybody may vote for a candidate who has been erratic on coverage and received the White Home at a time when unlawful border crossings are at report ranges.

The 2 tribes exist in seemingly parallel political ecosystems, with deep partisan divides the place opposing views are dismissed and candidates encourage loyalties that transcend regular partisanship.

Voters got apocalyptic warnings about what would possibly occur if the opposite aspect wins. The election, they have been instructed, was about far more than who would occupy the Oval Workplace for the following 4 years. Many thought-about this an existential occasion with doubtlessly catastrophic penalties.

There is no such thing as a doubt that the tone of this marketing campaign has raised the stakes and heightened anxiousness and rigidity, that means the results of this election could possibly be explosive. We don’t anticipate the authorized challenges and avenue protests to shock anybody.

It is a nation with a unique view of what’s at stake. However Pink America and Blue America will meet on the polls and the votes will likely be counted.

Regardless of the final result, about half are about to find that the opposite half has a very completely different understanding of what America needs.

For the losers, this will likely be a painful actuality.