As 4 out of 5 Americans say they feel nervous about the country's future, voters get a definitive chance to decide whether or not to vote out Donald Trump
Image: Calla Kessler/The New York Times
A nation with nearly 8% unemployment and mourning more than 231,000 COVID-19 deaths, where 4 out of 5 Americans say they feel nervous about the country’s future, gets a final chance Tuesday to decide which candidate is best equipped to lead it past those daunting numbers.
The division and anxiety are evident in conversations among voters in long lines outside early voting places and across browning autumn lawns where warring yard signs pit neighbor against neighbor. Here in the middle of the country, where case counts are surging and college football games were postponed after much angst this past weekend, the worry is all connected, from people on either side of the political chasm.
The coronavirus trends are especially pronounced in several battleground states, including Wisconsin and Michigan, which Joe Biden is fighting to win back for the Democrats after President Donald Trump’s victories there in 2016, and where infection rates were ticking up as the calendar wound down.
A fundamental unease about the country hovers over most other concerns voters describe as they cast ballots: The future of America troubles them more than whether they may lose a job in this recession, whether they could become ill in this pandemic, whether they could personally be harmed by violent crime.
In national polling by The New York Times and Siena College, voters across the political spectrum say they worry that the next generation of Americans will be worse off. And they are concerned America could lose its democracy.
©2019 New York Times News Service