America braces for election day clash of two stark visions

America is choosing its own path forward, and the stakes could not be higher.

Both candidates offered grim visions for the future if they lose this election. Donald Trump said the country would “go to hell” and “immediately become a communist country” if he lost, while Kamala Harris described her opponent as a “fascist” who wants ” Unrestricted power”.

Voters in key battleground states were bombarded with campaign ads, much of which was designed to stoke fear. Given this climate, it’s no surprise that Americans surveyed report high levels of anxiety.

“I do believe they’re keeping us living in fear just to get our votes,” Heather Suchek told me as Election Day approached in Wisconsin. She lives in a swing county in a swing state and plans to support Trump because, in her words, Harris’ economic plan is “horrible.”

But just down the street, I also met registered independent Tracy Andropolis, who said she would vote for Harris. “This is one of the most important elections of my lifetime. There are a lot of things that are up in the air,” she said, adding that she feared Trump would refuse to relinquish power if he won.

Both expressed genuine concerns about their candidates’ futures if they lost, reflecting the existential mood among many voters in the run-up to the election.

Ms. Andropolis also told me she didn’t believe the polls were evenly matched. Not because she has any real evidence, but because she can’t imagine millions of people planning to vote for Trump. She’s not the only one struggling to come to terms with the race’s intimacy.

One thing I’ve learned while traveling this country and talking to voters is that America seems not only clearly divided, but it feels like two different countries awkwardly coexisting on the same piece of land.

Democrats live primarily in cities and suburbs, Republicans primarily in rural areas. More and more Americans are moving to places where they share political views with their neighbors. It’s not hard to identify these areas right now, given that yard signs and placards often mark out Trump and Harris territory.

But it is impossible to live forever in these independent political worlds. These two parties are about to collide in the harsh realities of the election.

No matter the controversy, no matter the controversy, there must be a winner.

It will be shocking when some here learn the final results and realize that tens of millions of their fellow Americans feel very differently than they do.

Both Trump and Harris have charted their own historic, tumultuous paths to voting day.

I was one of the reporters who gathered outside a Manhattan courthouse to witness Trump’s criminal hush-money trial in April. Weeks later, he was found guilty, becoming the first former or sitting president to be convicted. Many people asked at the time: Can a convicted felon really re-enter the White House?

But his legal troubles and his claims that he was deliberately targeted by the Biden administration have only fueled his campaign and angered his supporters. “They’re not after me, they’re after you,” he often said.

“They are weaponizing the criminal justice system against their political opponents, and that’s not right,” one of his supporters told me outside the courthouse. Another said: “I will fight for this man until the day I die.”

A familiar pattern emerged: With each indictment, his poll numbers rose and donations poured in.

Think back to the moment last year when his photo was taken as part of an election interference case in Georgia. It quickly became an iconic image and is now emblazoned on many T-shirts I see at Trump rallies.

It’s impossible to look back on the former president’s wild journey to the polls without the moment that produced another iconic image and all but ended the campaign entirely.

When Trump was shot and killed by a would-be assassin in Butler, Pa., in July, the race and the country were profoundly shaken. As Secret Service agents helped him to his feet, bleeding from his ears, he raised his fists and urged his supporters to fight.

Just 48 hours later, when he showed up at a party convention in Milwaukee, his ears covered with gauze, some in the crowd were crying. I could see tears streaming down the face of one of the representatives standing near me. This is Tina Ioane, she’s from American Samoa.

“He is the anointed one,” she told me. “He was called to lead our country.”

During this summer’s election campaign, Trump looked invulnerable.

Democrats, on the other hand, are growing increasingly frustrated with their prospects. There is deep anxiety that their candidate, Joe Biden, is too old to win re-election.

In late June, I watched his chaotic debate against Trump in the press room. There was a stunned silence as we watched Biden’s 50-year political career essentially end before our eyes.

But even so, many who have publicly suggested he should step down have been dismissed. The Biden campaign even lashed out at the “bedwetting brigade” calling for his resignation.

Of course, it’s only a matter of time.

Days after the jubilant Republican convention in July, when it looked impossible for Trump to lose, Biden announced he was abandoning his re-election bid. The mood among Democratic supporters quickly shifted from anxious pessimism to excited anticipation.

Any reservations they had about whether Kamala Harris was the best candidate were dispelled a few weeks later at a joyful convention in Chicago. People who were resigned to failure are now swept away by a wave of enthusiasm.

The election represented an opportunity to “transcend the bitter, cynical and divisive struggles of the past,” she said to cheers.

But the excitement didn’t last long. Harris struggled to maintain momentum after an initial surge in the polls. She appears to be quickly winning back traditional Democrats who don’t support Biden, but is finding it more difficult to win over key undecided voters.

Yet Harris has repeatedly promoted this more optimistic message. She has also made reproductive rights a cornerstone of her campaign and hopes the issue will inspire large numbers of women to vote.

But as with all presidential elections, the challenge is convincing those who are undecided.

I met Zoie Cheneau at a hair salon she owns in Atlanta, Georgia, less than two weeks before the election. She said she had never been so unmotivated to vote.

“Right now it’s the lesser of two evils for me,” she said, explaining that she would ultimately vote for Harris but thinks Trump might be better for small businesses.

“I would be happy for a black woman to be president of the United States,” she said. “She’s going to win, I know she’s going to win.”

While some voters are anxious and believe the race is too close, supporters of both parties have repeatedly expressed Ms. Chernow’s certainty about the outcome.

Many Harris supporters simply cannot understand why she has not gone further than a convicted criminal who was publicly attacked and ridiculed by those who served in the previous administration.

Trump supporters are equally alarmed that anyone could vote for a candidate who has been erratic on policy and won the White House at a time when illegal border crossings are at record levels.

The two tribes exist in seemingly parallel political ecosystems, spanning deep partisan divides, where opposing views are dismissed and candidates inspire loyalties that transcend normal partisanship.

Voters were given apocalyptic warnings about what might happen if the other side wins. The election, they were told, was about much more than who would occupy the Oval Office for the next four years. Many considered this an existential event with potentially catastrophic consequences.

There is no doubt that the tone of this campaign has raised the stakes and heightened anxiety and tension, meaning the consequences of this election could be explosive. We don’t expect the legal challenges and street protests to surprise anyone.

This is a country that sees the stakes differently. But Red America and Blue America will meet at the polls and the votes will be counted.

Whatever the outcome, about half are about to discover that the other half has a completely different understanding of what America wants.

For the losers, this will be a painful reality.