But something is different this time. The 2024 US presidential election has witnessed a late candidate switch, two lopsided debates, two assassination attempts, an intervention by the world's richest man, euphoria reminiscent of Barack Obama and rhetoric evocative of Adolf Hitler. It is a campaign marked by both violence and joy.
Its outcome will be equally groundbreaking. America might be about to elect Kamala Harris, the first female president in its 248-year history. Or it could hand the White House back to 78-year-old Donald Trump, the first former president with a criminal record as well as two impeachments.
Both sides are utterly convinced that their side must win, that defeat would represent the end of democracy, freedom and the American way of life. They are like two trains gathering speed as they hurtle towards each other. For nearly half the country the result will be devastating. They will have lost what the veteran journalist Carl Bernstein called a cold civil war.
That is in part because Trump has spent a decade sowing divisions of class and race. But this election has exposed a gender gulf two years after the supreme court ended the constitutional right to abortion. Democrats nominated a woman while Trump has embraced crude machismo and "bro" culture.
Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote: "It is the ultimate battle of the sexes in the most visceral of elections. Who will prevail? The women, especially young women, who are appalled at the cartoonish macho posturing and benighted stances of Donald Trump and his entourage? Or the men, including many young men, union men, Latino and Black men, who are drawn to Trump's swaggering, bullying and insulting, seeing him as the reeling-backward antidote to shrinking male primacy."
Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin November 06, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin November 06, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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