Perpetual Grievance, The Two Americas, Faux Populists, Musk, and the ‘View From Nowhere’: Five Timeless Supplement Reads for US Election Night
While you wait for the results of the US elections, some highlights of our coverage of the last two years
As the world awaits the results of what is being billed as one of the most momentous US presidential elections in the country’s history, Supplement is revisiting five of its articles from the past year, shedding light on the underlying forces at play in the battle between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – and the battle for America’s soul.
While an official result could take days to be announced, here are a selection of timeless reads diving deep into some of the thought-provoking issues at play for American democracy this time around:
MAGA and the Perpetual Grievance Machine
One of the biggest stories in US politics in recent years is how the GOP was ripe for takeover by the cult-and-conspiracy authoritarian populism of Trump’s MAGA movement. In September, Matt Bernardini explored how the Republicans’ use of grievance politics stoking anti-immigrant hatred has been a central tenet of the MAGA hold on the party.
'The Two Americas'
For Chicago-born Bonnie Greer, Kamala Harris’ election campaign – a prosecutor and woman of colour going head-to-head with a convicted felon – has been a run like no other. In September, she reflected on why this is a historic turning point for American democracy.
Musk
X (formerly Twitter) owner, and the world’s richest person, Elon Musk has made clear his increasingly interventionist approach in US (and, bizarrely, UK) politics is in service of a particular ideology – with the Tesla CEO allegedly promised a role in Trump’s administration if the former President is re-elected. In June, Heidi Siegmund Cuda examined how Musk has used his social media platform to launch an assault on the most foundational parts of the US’ democratic systems.
‘Stakes Not the Odds’
How did American democracy arrive at a point where Donald Trump, the President found to have incited a violent insurrection in which several people lost their lives, could credibly stand for re-election as the Republican candidate – and what has the media’s role been in this? Did it learn the lessons from 2016 this time around? In June, the Supplement team spoke to Professor Jay Rosen, of New York University, about why journalism’s ‘view from nowhere’ approach landed US politics in trouble with Trump.
The Faux Populists
In standing for re-election, Trump is hoping the United States is in the mood for a return of his ‘strongman’ antics. Last December, historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat spoke to the Supplement team about why the media is crucial in stopping such a narrative from prevailing.