With a week to go the polls are showing that the contest to become president of the United States is deadlocked. Donald Trump’s vitriol filled hate rally at Madison Square Gardens appears to justify Kamala Harris’s strategy of leading on how dangerous, divisive and racist he will be. But Trump himself declared it was a “Lovefest” and this is being reported as if it was indeed one. It is now normal for him to suck his millions of supporters through the looking class into his travesty. At the same time Jeff Bezos of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, leads the US oligarchy in declaring neutrality. In such circumstances it seems sensible to hold off speculating on the future of America and the world until after the November election.
But this is also a special moment of high anxiety. We face what may be a definitive turning point in modern history. Personally, I feel my entire political life is on the block. It’s a strange sensation; one that combines a feeling of vindication that I’ve been right all along even as I sense the axe blade of modern fascism above my neck about to sever any hope for a progressive future.
For the roots of the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – go back to the 1960s. While radicalism in Britain took the form of satire, deep political passions were defined by America. There, a long civil conflict began. It still divides the US, it shapes much of today’s politics around the world and it defined my generation.
