Americans are forever described as “divided”, as though that in itself is a bad thing. It would be stranger if a democratic nation did not disagree with itself, even stridently, about the largest matters of governance.
The US, which often saves its worst quarrels for midterm elections, did so in 2010, when Obamacare was the vexed question, in 1994, when Republicans ran against government itself, and as far back as 1938, when even Franklin Roosevelt tasted the people’s wrath. What distinguishes next week’s midterms from these rancorous precedents is the principal source of the rancour. It is from the very top, President Donald Trump, that the coarsest behaviour has come.
Mr Trump’s enemies list, which he airs in his rallies, goes beyond Democrats to include journalists, immigrants, the intelligence services, dissident athletes and an ill-defined elite. He has proposed the non-recognition of transgender people and commissioned campaign advertisements that take some stomach to sit through. The violence of recent weeks, targeting high-profile liberals and, in deadlier fashion, Jews, cannot be blamed directly on him. But a decent president would sense the hateful atmosphere and calm it down. Mr Trump too often exacerbates it to his own end.