It is not unusual for US presidential candidates to increase their attacks on their opponents as election day approaches. It is considered the most effective way to get the candidates’ own voters to actually bother to vote. In the election campaign between Trump and Harris, this is extra important. Every vote counts in the important swing states. It’s completely even in the polls, even it might look like Trump has a little more wind in his sails right now. Calling Trump a fascist But this is no ordinary election campaign. The candidates’ use of language about each other is turned up to level 11. At a campaign meeting with CNN, Harris answered quite calmly and affirmatively the question of whether she thinks Trump is a fascist. The background for this is several statements that have come from Trump’s close associates from the last time he was president. John Kelly was one of them. He is a four-star general in the US Marines. He was Trump’s chief of staff between 2017 and 2019. President Donald Trump listens to his then chief of staff John Kelly. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP No one has as good access to an American president as a chief of staff, and Kelly has seen and worked more closely with Trump than most. To the New York Times, he warned that he thought Trump fit the definition of a fascist, that he will rule as a dictator and that he has no understanding of either the constitution or the normal legal order. And he is not alone. Trump’s former defense secretary Mark Esper, for example, says that Trump must be taken seriously when he threatens to use the military against his political opponents. A completely unusual candidate In a normal situation, this would long ago have been the end of a candidacy, especially if we add the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021 and the subsequent denial of the election results. But as we know, the United States is not in an ordinary situation and Trump is no ordinary presidential candidate. Either the voters don’t care, or they don’t take it entirely seriously. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP Harris’s problem seems twofold. One is that she herself does not stand out clearly and come through with who she is. She cannot quite define herself, as election campaign experts often say. The second is that Trump and the Republicans have some good political cards in hand. Trump’s rhetoric is perhaps ugly about both his opponents and immigration. Opposition to immigration The way he talks about migrants has become tougher and tougher. At a campaign rally in Aurora, Colorado, for example, he said the migrants came from the dungeons of the Third World. But some of what he says about immigration still resonates with broad groups of voters, partly because of the mistakes of President Joe Biden and, with that, his vice president. They changed the immigration rules when they got into power, the number of immigrants skyrocketed and they apparently lost control of the border. Photo: OLIVIER TOURON / AFP Figures from the Wall Street Journal show that overall immigration has been 9.3 million people since the start of 2021. That is three times as many as in the previous period, and most of these were again illegal immigrants. With that, they sent a lace fit to Trump and co. which has played on opposition to immigration in the two previous elections. One of the USA’s paradoxes is that the country is founded on immigration at the same time that there has been resistance to new population groups coming to the country. That immigration mobilizes is clear. Among Republican voters, 82 percent state that this is an important issue. Mobilizing his own Trump is therefore mobilizing his own on this towards the election on this topic. It is also not unimportant among those who have not decided. In another opinion poll, 50 percent say that the situation on the border with Mexico is the most important foreign policy issue in the election campaign. It also doesn’t help that Harris was given some sort of responsibility for the border and immigration from Latin America early in her vice presidency. Her role is exaggerated in today’s election campaign by the Republicans, but it contributes to the fact that it is difficult for Harris to free herself from the unpopular administration of Joe Biden of which she was a part. Bad time The two presidential candidates are having a bad time now. The question is who is most effective in the rush. Trump appears to be banking on opposition to immigration and stunts that gain social media attention. Harris cranks up the personal attacks on Trump with an underlying message that he is unfit for the presidency. In less than two weeks, we will get the answer to which of the two Americans prefer. Although it has been a short election campaign, no one can say that they do not know who they are voting for if a majority should think that it is Donald Trump. Published 25/10/2024, at 19.46
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A dark election campaign in the USA – Speech
