DANIEL QUINN MILLS STEVEN ROSEFIELDE
American presidential election campaigns are supposed to inform the public about present dangers and opportunities, enabling voters to choose the candidate most likely to defend the quality of national existence.The Democratic and Republican parties instead prioritize mobilizing electoral support with appeals to identity, ideology, idealism and fear. Instead of providing voters with an appreciation of how their partisan programs are likely to affect them, both parties demonize each other and barrage the public with deceptive idealist appeals. Clearly, controlling the narrative is more important to the candidates than candidly addressing present dangers and opportunities. This results in narratives that are full of sound and fury, yet signify little.Avoiding the media melodrama and adopting a non-partisan position, Harris versus Trump: America’s Existential Futures identifies the power-seeking goals of the Democratic and Republican parties, and their path-dependent systemic consequences.The flagbearers of the two parties, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, offer voters two distinct 'existential' futures that only come into focus with detailed examinations of the real present dangers and opportunities. Hence, this book surveys key domestic and foreign challenges confronting the United States, obscured by campaign rhetoric, and discusses the candidates’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward them.Harris versus Trump considers America’s prospects under Harris and Trump regimes, revealing that the outcome of the November 2024 election is likely to matter more fundamentally than most observers appreciate.
