Harris vs Trump: The closer the election result, the more dangerous its aftermath?

With just days to go until the US election, the Listener’s Washington DC columnist Jonathan Kronstadt turns to positive visualisation and mindfulness apps as he anxiously awaits the election outcome.

For my entire voting life, from 1976 to last Thursday, choosing a president has been a partisan endeavour. I’ve never voted for a Republican and feel safe in asserting that all the ones that managed to move into the White House without my vote left the nation worse off on their way out.

In the past, which side was going to win was pretty much all you had to worry about. It was often more than enough, given the damage done by the likes of Nixon, Reagan and the Bush twins. But this time, things are different.

Not only has the worry about who will win been super-sized by who could win, a new and equally toe-quivering question has been added: what’s going to happen?

There are three instantly memorable dates for Americans: Fourth of July, 9/11, and the club’s newest member, January 6. 9/11 shattered our collective feeling of invincibility from outsiders; January 6 did similar damage to our sense of safety when looking at each other.

So, this time – really for the first time – we don’t know what’s going to happen. No one knows. There are no polls to predict this outcome, no wizard pundit with an airtight case for any point on the reaction spectrum from silence to civil war.

As you might imagine, this thick layer of looming chaos-induced angst hasn’t done a lot for our national blood pressure. I’m keenly aware that as a straight white male living comfortably in the suburbs, a Trump victory would likely have little impact on my day-to-day life.

But in a way, much of the damage is already done as there’s no denying that about half the people whose phone country code is the same as mine are okay with putting this petty and mean-spirited narcissist in charge. That is an inescapably sad fact.

But for the millions who are even a little bit vulnerable or marginalised for a host of reasons – most, though not all, of whom fall under the umbrella of not being a straight white male – a second Trump presidency is cause for genuine concern.