Tight race to White House

The race has tightened in the most anticipated election of our times. An outlandish political drama playing out over the US presidential election is almost at an end between a tax-avoiding billionaire who has been exposed as a sexual predator and a former President’s wife who finds that an FBI investigation into the sexting scandal of the husband of an aide is also somehow linked to her email use impropriety.

The lines have been drawn and the contest will be decided on who turns out to vote on Tuesday. Historically, the more densely populated areas of the US have voted for the Democrats and the sparsely populated ones filled with white voters have voted Republican. Ironically, the most urban of Republicans ever and a resident of New York, Donald Trump, faces Hillary Clinton, who is no stranger to the White House and to the high seats of Capitol power. While Mr Trump has played every divisive card to whip up a war like campaign, Ms Clinton represents the essential conservatism of old political power.

What is under test is also faith in the system after questions were raised about rigged elections by Mr Trump, fuelling increasing cynicism over politics itself. While Mr Trump can be said to represent the ambitions of a silent segment of mostly white men to reclaim political power lost eight years ago, a diverse population, even in a nation of an ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, represents the best hope for the Democrats to continue to rule through a chief executive while hoping the balance in the legislatures will also change. The stakes are huge and the predicting pundits too know that half of them will be wrong.