Travelling across the USA in the first months of 2024 made it no easier to predict the outcome of the November election. Americans, on the surface at least, seem as divided as ever. Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), the idea that democracy will not survive the return of Donald Trump to the Oval Office, is battling it out with the Cult of Donald (CoD), the belief that only Trump can save democracy. Underneath all the acrimony, however, lies a sentiment shared by most: the USA, as we have known it since 1945 and even more so since 1991, is at an end. America is dead. Long live Amerika.
Crossing from Manhattan to New Jersey in mid-February, a billboard promoting the return of Jon Stewart to American television after a break of nine years caught my eye. Its slogan was witty enough: ‘A second term we can all agree on’. The joke, obviously, was that while Americans could agree on Stewart having a second shot at prime time, the same does not apply to Joe Biden or Donald Trump, each vying for a second term in the White House. The billboard was not entirely accurate – not everyone welcomed Stewart’s return.
