Donald Trump puts democracy and the free world at risk

There is something surreal about watching and waiting for the US Presidential election this week. Even though our new government is still trying to find its feet, we cannot throw off our national near obsession with American politics.

Although this time, perhaps with greater justification than before, it feels as if more than just the next four years in the White House is at stake. The headlines claiming it will be historic, epoch-defining and vital to the future of Western democracy are no empty rhetoric.

Not just because of the potential firsts. Kamala Harris would be the first woman, first woman of colour, first person of South Asian heritage to inhabit the Oval Office. Trump would be the oldest and only the second president to have non-consecutive terms. The other was Grover Cleveland more than a century ago.

But, important as they are, those are not the historic precedents occupying minds on both sides of the Atlantic. The concerns we acknowledged in our own general election about the growth of right-wing sentiment is nothing to the fear which stalks the corridors of power in Washington, and across all 50 states, about what a Trump presidency could mean.

Completely different ways of life

I see it in my own office. A member of staff who is American has admitted, unsurprisingly, that he will be on edge until we have the verdict delivered by his fellow countrymen on Tuesday. Of course as we saw four years ago, we might have to wait longer than we would like to discover what Tuesday’s vote could mean for his country.

What his compatriots are being asked to choose between is not just two visions of the future but two ways of life. Two completely different concepts of a modern country.

We may be unhappy with the Labour party’s approach to taxing business, the Tories’ neglect of our public services or the SNP’s incompetence, but our concept of society is basically the same. The divisions between our political parties are nothing compared to the chasm opening up in American communities.

Chauvinistic bombast

From this side of the pond, it seems that Kamala Harris represents the future. She is the protector of women’s rights, indeed all human rights. Developing the American dream, not deconstructing it.

Trump’s chauvinistic bombast on the other hand is the embodiment of something that we like to think we cannot quite comprehend, but many of us fear is beginning to creep in here. Nigel Farage and his party have made no secret of their sympathy with Trump’s politics.

Those of us in the centre admire Harris’s championing of minority rights and hope she would be a president to lead the free world, make it secure and protect democracy. We know from bitter experience that will not be the Trump way.

As a Liberal Democrat politician, it is probably no surprise that I find more in common with, more to respect in, the Harris approach.

As a woman too, I find reassurance in her defence of reproductive rights, knowing that whatever happens in the United States inevitably influences us here through our cultural links and common heritage.

If Trump wins, I will respect the democratic decision of the American public. Let’s hope if he loses, he does too.

Christine Jardine is Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West