Who will be the forty-seventh President of the United States of America? Donald or Kamala? Kamala or Donald? It seems that the alternative that, perhaps, in the circumstances, would have been useful to offer an “other” possibility to a competition that is not too innovative and not even, perhaps, too new, is missing.

The elections, as is known, will be held tomorrow, November 5, 2024 and, at the same time, during the same day, the elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate will also be held as well as the gubernatorial elections. A complex system without a doubt, but given the extension of the territory involved, it could not have been otherwise. The polarization is evident, but perhaps, not very representative compared to the current American social and economic context which certainly, would not even seem remotely comparable to that in the 1980s, when in the collective American ideal, the figure of Ronald Reagan, president from 1980 to 1988, asserted himself in all his influence, to the point that with good verisimilitude it would seem to be able to still be remembered as the ideological correspondent of a strong and influential America as it was able to direct the political and strategic action of the Allies, economically rich, decidedly successful in international political choices and in the management of conflicts. "Let's make America great again" was his motto.

As of today, net of the appeal that the new presidential figure will be able to exercise, the scope of action of the new President will be strictly proportional, and/or inversely proportional (we will see at the end), with respect to the component of the power group that will be outlined at the outcome of the elections, and in particular, to the balances that will be realized between the White House in and of itself considered and Congress, as well as between the two Houses of this, between the two major parties, Republican and Democratic and, within them, between the different groups that animate them and that could well influence their choices in a more stringent manner. This latter circumstance makes the political and directive line that will be outlined rather uncertain. In this sense, it could be the popular vote that makes the difference and influences choices in the political sphere more significantly. If we really wanted to be critical of an electoral campaign that was rather heated in tone but not very convincing in terms of programs, although the respective positions are placed on a clear competitive dichotomous level that can be subsumed into the membership of the respective factions, however on a practical level it would seem to find a poor correspondence, since the diversity that one would like to proclaim verbally would in reality not seem to define, despite the announced proclamations, certain key points of the future political action of each of the two candidates: on a purely international level, for example, what will be the actual content structure of the actions of the new administration, whoever it may be? What could be the role of the American giant that in the past years has been able to count on an (we could say) unchallenged hegemony in deciding the world balance? What could be the relations between the United States of America and the Old Continent, which seems to have less and less impact, in the new international order within which, with the emergence of new and technologically competitive powers such as China, each will presumably have to carve out its own space?

If we consider it carefully, it is a scenario that is still in progress and that could perhaps surprise if Kamala Harris prevails in the electoral competition because, in the event of victory, she would be the first Asian-American woman President of the United States of America, and the second African-American after the presidential experience of Barak Obama in 2008. In short, what would be surprising would be only the ideological value of a female victory before the political one, since, with good likelihood, the Harris administration, if it were to be so and the forecast can only be totally uncertain, would not differ from that led so far by Joe Biden. But the question could probably be another: who between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris really embodies the ideals of the so-called "American dream" if we can still manage to outline its contours today? Perhaps neither of them and, probably, because of the lack in an electoral competition that is still very heated of that alternative somehow necessary to offer the further stimulus, the one capable of indicating the so-called proverbial third way to go.

In the meantime, all that remains is to wait, and probably, regardless of the winner, nothing new could be expected under the sun.

Giuseppina Di Salvatore – lawyer, Nuoro

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