Add Category
It’s the election that no one could have foreseen.
Not so long ago, Donald Trump was marinating in self-pity at Mar-a-Lago after being impeached twice and voted out of the White House. Even some of his closest allies were looking forward to a future without the charismatic, yet erratic, billionaire leading the Republican Party, especially after his failed attempt to overturn an election ended in violence and shame. When Trump announced his comeback bid two years ago, the New York Post buried the article on page 26.
Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Atrium Health Amphitheater.Credit: AP
At the same time, Kamala Harris was languishing as a low-profile sidekick to President Joe Biden. Once seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, she struggled with both her profile and her portfolio, disappointing her supporters and delighting her critics. No one was talking about Harris running for the top job – they were wondering if Biden should replace her as his running mate when he sought a second term.
But on Wednesday, improbable as it may have seemed before, Americans will choose either Trump or Harris to serve as the next president. It’s the final chapter in one of the most bewildering, unpredictable and consequential sagas in political history.
US Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign event at Michigan State University.Credit: Bloomberg
For once, the word “unprecedented” has not been overused.
“If someone had told you ahead of time what was going to happen in this election, and you tried to sell it as a book, no one would believe it,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster with more than four decades of experience. “It’s energised the country and it’s polarised the country. And all we can hope is that we come out of it better in the end.”
History was and will be made. The United States has never elected a president who has been convicted of a crime. Trump survived not one, but two assassination attempts. Biden dropped out in the middle of an election year and Harris could become the first female president. Fundamental tenets about democracy in the most powerful nation on earth will be tested like no time since the Civil War.
And that’s not to mention the backdrop of simultaneous conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, hacking by foreign governments, an increasingly normalised blizzard of misinformation and the intimate involvement of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
For now, the only thing the country can agree on is that no one knows how the story will end.
AP