Harris vs Trump: How US voters are justifying their presidential pick

With less than a month until the US election, the Listener’s Washington DC columnist Jonathan Kronstadt’s weekly column surveys the weighty, the weird and the wonderful from the Harris vs Trump race for the presidency.

Each US presidential election is as much a cultural as political litmus test for the nation and one frequent cultural outcome is a boost to our national vocabulary.

Recycling slogans is a common practice – Donald Trump stole “Make America Great Again” from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign and both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama made “hope” the watchword of their successful runs – but often a phrase that doesn’t appear on posters and billboards becomes central to the enterprise. For the 2024 election that phrase is “permission structure”.

A permission structure is an emotional and psychological justification for changing deeply held beliefs and/or behaviours while retaining a modicum of pride and integrity – or at least the ability to sleep at night. You could also call it a well-dressed rationalisation.

As the race to November 5 grows ever-more frantic Americans of all political stripes are being offered permission structures to do all kinds of wacky things that normally reside outside their comfort zones.

Moderate Republicans and independents are the prime targets as they are part of neither party’s core, base, chewy nougat centre – however you wish to refer to those whose choice in this election is unshakeable.

Some of the enablers are moderate, if wildly inconsistent Republicans like New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu, a Nikki Haley supporter and frequent Trump critic who nevertheless says the Orange Menace has his vote. Sununu called for Trump to suspend his campaign should he be convicted of a crime—check, 32 times over; said Trump “has no chance of winning in November of ‘24″, and that Trump isn’t “even a real Republican”. But hey, if he can say all that and still vote for the guy I guess I’m not technically an asshole if I do it too.

Sununu called for Trump to suspend his campaign should he be convicted of a crime—check, 32 times over.”