Fear, loathing and Trump, Trump, Trump: in final hours of bitter US campaign, combatants wage a battle for the soul of America
- Republicans and Democrats alike are convinced Tuesday’s midterm elections are the most consequential in their lifetimes – and at the centre of it all is one man
Michael Gregoire marched along a downtown pavement in the tense days before the midterm elections, waving a hand-painted sign at passing traffic: “DEFEAT REPUBLICANS 2018.”
“The survival of the country is going to depend on this election,” he said as another man stopped for a moment to argue. The strangers faced each other from opposite edges of the great American divide, Democrat versus Republican, both convinced the election is among the most consequential in their lifetimes and that they must save the nation from the fearful consequences of other side.
“I’m voting for Donald Trump,” Stuart Kanter said. “He’s not on the ticket. But, in a way, actually he is.”
US President Donald Trump looms large over Tuesday’s election, which is expected to draw historic numbers to the polls and will determine which party controls Congress. For Gregoire and Kanter – and for voters across the country – the election represents something far greater than whatever Senate and House races appear on their ballots. It is a competition for the soul of America – a referendum on Trump and the venomous political culture that many blame for gridlock in Congress and a recent spate of hate crimes and politically motivated attacks.
I’m terrified. We’re going to a place I just don’t understand
Less than two weeks ago in this city, a white man gunned down two African-American shoppers at a grocery store in what police described as a racially motivated attack. Days later, an avid Trump supporter was arrested for mailing pipe bombs to prominent critics of the president, all of whom Trump routinely derides as “evil” and “un-American.” The next day, another gunman opened fire in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, massacring 11 worshippers and telling police “all these Jews need to die.”