Trump vs Harris: The stakes are way higher for America than for the rest of us

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It has been anything but edifying, this race for the US presidency. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris was labelled “slow, low IQ... something" by her Republican rival Donald Trump, who was called “unhinged and unstable" by Harris—and also someone who met the definition of “fascist," a label that Trump said came from a “warped mind."

All this in a democracy that has long seen itself as a role model for others. Where the rhetoric slides, either the race is close or stakes are high. In this case, both. They are extremely high for America, but lower than usual for the rest of the world.

While the two rivals for the world’s most powerful job diverge on domestic issues, they converge on key aspects of global affairs that matter to most others.

Let’s begin with what’s up in America. Its economy is doing fine, with a cool-off in inflation through policy action that hasn’t hit jobs or output as badly as it could have; barring the sticker shock of a 2022 flare-up in prices, its role seems rather subdued in this election. The country has even more basic issues to settle. Such as openness.

A drawing up of drawbridges has been Trump’s clarion call. So popular has this dubious way to “Make America great again" been that Harris has had to harden her stance on immigration, while doing her utmost to cast diversity in a positive light (a la Obama) to strike a contrast.

It’s a battle for the nation’s identity—the Idea of America, so to speak. Does it want the world’s “tempest-tost," as the Statue of Liberty says, or not? Trump-versus-Harris is also a litmus test for a crucial aspect of freedom. Should women not have bodily autonomy?

For many, it comes down to patriarchy versus equality; with gender justice at stake, the day must be seized. And then, there’s Trump, who faces a sort of referendum.

Given how the Capitol was stormed on 6 January 2021 and Trump’s legal run-ins since, the values at stake plausibly extend to the rule of law and will of the people, both long taken (or mistaken) as done deals.

This election may still pivot on the ‘economy, stupid,’ but don’t bet on it. Not after Trump shattered US politics as usual and gave the country a rightward lurch.

The rest of the world is watching, but, barring China, Russia and Iran, not quite as nervously. On climate, Harris would be tougher on carbon emissions than Trump, though she has softened on fossil fuels.

On trade, while Trump’s grand tariff proposals would distort flows and spell lose-lose outcomes globally, few expect Harris to embrace open markets as a win-win, give up America’s ‘small yard, high fence’ policy or let the WTO oversee fair play.

The US no longer champions free-market policies. But it’s on matters of war and peace that expectations of both seem most at par—for being abysmally low. While Trump claims Europe and West Asia would’ve stayed calm on his watch (and Bangladesh too), he hasn’t explained how. Or how he’d douse those flames if elected.

As for Vice-President Harris, her effort to balance the heavy arming of Israel by President Joe Biden with words of sympathy for Gaza may have fallen flat not just with those who share a faith with Gazans, or take a dim view of Zionist excesses, but also with anti-war liberals fed up with Uncle Sam’s “axis of upheaval" geo-calculus.

Her campaign’s split-market messages in two key states have let Trump play his you-get-what-you-see card, even if the fog of war shrouds what he would do to win Cold War II peacefully. While America argues with itself, it should spare a thought for how others view its value wobbles.

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