I have without shame stolen the following from elsewhere because I think this is a brilliant summary of the current state of play in the U.S of A.
Many Americans don't care what Trump's foreign policy is like. Why would you? You're the most successful country in the world, from an early age the flag - the ultimate expression of your country's sovereignty and power - is sanctified and its importance drummed into you. You are a nation of dreamers - the American Dream is a concept enshrined in culture and central to the future and prospects of any American. After all, the most successful country in the world didn't get there by passively remaining on the sidelines, in the equivalent of a sensible, comfortable, mediocre job. It rose to the top with a little luck and some sharp elbows. People like Trump seem like the embodiment of that American Dream because they are there, at the top, with the power, with the money. It's his name on the tower. It's his name that has that universal recognition. It doesn't matter that thousands upon thousands of broken hopes and shattered aims prove that the American Dream is nothing more than a streetcar named desire. Those thousands upon thousands of broken hopes and shattered aims prove that those thousands upon thousands of broken dreamers simply didn't have sharp elbows, acumen, nous.
You have no taxation without representation. You, yourself, are taxed. Therefore, you, yourself, are represented. How do you best represent yourself? By voting for the person who will give you, yourself, a better quality of life. Lower petrol prices. Lower food prices. Lower taxes. You, yourself, are pretty comfortably-off, mind. But why should that matter? It's about the ability to get a quality of life that is better still. You're American. You share in that collective dream, that you have been taught to dream every night since you were a child. How can you best realise that dream? By having room enough to use those sharp elbows of yours. Success follows an exponential curve, in your experience anyway. And immigrants? It's the American Dream. That should be pointed enough for you. And, after all, they seem to be pretty horrible - the Stanley Kowalskis of this generation.
There is a left wing that opposes you. A left wing that is your only realistic choice, except Trump. The politics of envy writ large, as you see it. Over-taxing, under-representing. How can you be properly represented by a government that loathes you? And they support abortion too, well, that does it. You have Christian principles - more than that, you believe every word of the Bible - and this goes so deeply against it. Your principles inform your vote, after all. If any would not work, neither should he eat - that's 2 Thessalonians 3:9-11, and Moses and Paul are quite against a lot of this liberal agenda. And that's not forgetting the fact that all these important preachers whose words you hang upon are endorsing the Republicans as well.
Not a million miles away, although it could just as well be, the dreams of others - parents and children - are silent amidst the clamour. An immigrant parent, juggling awful jobs in terrible conditions for paltry pay to put food on the table. A young, black child, still facing adversity and hardship simply for the colour of their skin as opposed to the content of their character, despite the dream of a man over 60 years ago.
They, too, are America. But they are not the America that the American in the first half of this post sees, thinks of, dreams of. The United States, the American dream - surely they are universal experiences, just as they honour the same flag, sing the same patriotic songs, have the same President as the Americans a million miles away?
The fatal flaw in the first American's logic, of course, is that their ancestors were likely to have been towards the bottom of the ladder once. That they know: it has been drummed into them as proof of the American Dream. But what were they then? A recent immigrant, travelling to a new world in search of a better life. I know I've already thrown in a couple of references, but, looking at A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley Kowalski is undoubtedly brutal. Either the inevitable result of nasty foreigners coming into the country or just one gone rogue, depending on your point of view.
Dig deeper, however, and his physical brutality is a metaphor for that American Dream. Sharp elbows, no compromises, all the advantages you can get. It is a very powerful critique, but it needs digging out. It needs the reader to consciously get a spade, and start digging.
As a classic of American literature, I'm sure that a fair amount of the American population will be, to some degree, familiar with it. But how many of them will go out of the way to deliberately dig up that fundamental pillar of the cultural dream they were taught as children and have carried with them all their life?
That's why (in my opinion, at least) Trump is so appealing, and why Harris's techniques and language didn't work. It was always going to win over the people who simply thought Biden was too old, but I don't think it would have substantially won over the people who were voting for Trump as the "least worst". I may just be talking nonsense - but that's my interpretation!