The primary season reminded us of other flaws in the American system, such as the opposition to majorities in the electoral college. A small number of voters in a small number of states will decide the winner, which explains our recent focus on pockets of Muslim voters in Michigan angry at the Biden administration's support for Israel's brutal military campaign in Gaza.
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Although Biden will almost certainly win the nationwide popular vote, as Democratic candidates have done in seven of the past eight presidential contests, that will be irrelevant. Instead, the elections will almost certainly be decided in only six key states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
For many years, America has been contending with dystopian literature, and that's been especially true this primary season. There were echoes of Adolf Hitler when Trump warned that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the nation. Last month, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created during fertility treatments should be considered children, casting doubt on the legality of IVF. Super Bowl conspiracy mongers saw a psychological operation involving the Pentagon, Taylor Swift, her boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce, and the entire NFL to help Biden secure another four years.
Fortunately, there were also signs of mental health. Nikki Haley, who has now dropped out of the race, won more than 30% of the vote in the Republican primary, raising hopes that an anti-Trump majority will assert itself in November. However, four major polls on the eve of Super Tuesday showed Trump ahead of Biden, revealing deep dissatisfaction with the 81-year-old president over his age, the economy and chaos at the US-Mexico border.
The clamor that characterized the State of the Union address, and the partisan heckling that accompanied it, once again exposed the dysfunction of Washington. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who came wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, looked like she belonged in the studio audience on the Jerry Springer show. Unfortunately, the spectacle of American democracy now resembles trashy daytime television. Regular programming is still a long way from being resumed.
Nick Bryant, a former BBC correspondent in Washington, is the author of the forthcoming book, Forever War: America's Neverending Struggle with Itself.
