The 2024 election has left America in a state of exhaustion

“Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all,” said Balfour. Tell that to the American political class on the day of the 2024 presidential election. After months of the Trump–Biden–Harris drama — the criminal indictments, the disaster debates, the President dropping out, the assassination attempts — the nation is in a state of nervous exhaustion.

“I just want this to be over,” America’s politicos almost all say, as they tell you in the same breath that their country could, in fact, be on the brink of a long and possibly violent civil conflict.

Team Harris and Team Trump have both been clear: 2024 is existential. If Trump wins, according to Harris, democracy is done for and women will be forced to have babies. If Harris wins, according to Trump, free speech is finished, the American dream is over, and the Republican Party will be bankrupt. Each side predicts the other will need psychotherapy if the result doesn’t go its way.

The dread feeling — on both sides — is only exacerbated by the likelihood that, after today, we probably still won’t know. America doesn’t have one presidential election. It has 50 presidential elections at once. Each state has its own procedures and processes, and some states might still be counting the votes until late next week. In an extremely tight race, that means the result could be impossible to call for days. Or it could be all over.

Add to that the reverse fear: what if the polls have missed the point, again, and the election is in fact a clear early win? What if the Trump movement really is as big as it looks in all those rallies? Or what if Team Harris was right all along, and a significant majority of women will come out to defend their right to abort their unconceived children?

The clearest split between the two campaigns really is the gender divide. Harris–Walz has been almost absurdly feminized: its late adverts urged married women to lie to their husbands about voting for the Democratic candidate. Trump–Vance has, by contrast, made a clear pitch for the forgotten macho man: summed up by its excitement last night that Joe Rogan, the biggest podcast bro on the planet, had at last endorsed the Donald. The age of equality has pushed us towards a great clash between the sexes. And the struggle between man and woman is one that matters to us all.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.