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US election: Candidates in the final push for the White House

Michigan has been a Democrat stronghold for decades but as Political Correspondent John Manley reports from Detroit the arrival of presidential election’s heavy hitters in the ‘rust belt’ state suggests the outcome is less certain this time around

Trump supporters hoping that the Republican candidate can pull off a win in Tuesday's presidential election
Trump supporters hoping that the Republican candidate can pull off a win in Tuesday's presidential election Trump supporters hoping that the Republican candidate can pull off a win in Tuesday's presidential election

AMERICA is united in one thing – the people want this election over.

Campaign fatigue among the general population gave way to exhaustion weeks ago and it now appears the only ones left with any enthusiasm are the zealots on both sides.

The country may be together in its desire to get things over and done with but that’s the only thing that unifies it.

It has been a presidential campaign that has grown steadily more divisive and antagonistic as election day approached.

It’s hard not to blame Donald Trump for introducing a vulgarity into the US political discourse from which it may never recover.

Yet it’s his blunt and unsophisticated approach that makes Trump so popular. You may not like what you see, but it’s what you get.

In Sterling Heights Michigan on Monday night at one of his last rallies before polling day, the Republican presidential candidate was his usual brash and bellicose self.

A crowd of 7,500, with half as many again outside, packed the amphitheatre on the edge of Detroit.

After being warmed up by gun campaigning rock guitarist Ted Nugent, the overwhelmingly white audience welcomed Trump on stage with characteristic hysteria and chants of “Build our wall”.

Michigan and the Motor City mark the north end of US’s ‘rust belt’, post-industrial areas where the blue-collar vote traditionally went to the Democrats.

But politics in the US has changed and the usual left-right affiliations have been replaced by an ‘up-down’ split, where many of those in the middle no longer trust the establishment and particularly politicians like Hillary Clinton.

The parallels with the disaffection in Britain’s working class and ‘politics of fear’ that helped shape the outcome of June’s EU referendum are glaring.

“We are going to win on Tuesday,” Trump told the crowd. “This is going to be Brexit-plus.”

Elsewhere, he promised to “bring back the jobs”, cut taxes to levels not seen since the Ronald Reagan era and of course, build that wall – “and Mexico’s gonna pay”.

Whether he can pull it off depends on how much he can woo those traditional Democrat-leaning demographics like women, Latinos and African-Americans.

While at Monday night’s rally an African-Amercian man brandished a home-made ‘Blacks for Trump’ sign, you can’t help think he represents a very small minority.

Nonetheless, the opinion polls are closer than most envisaged and there’s fear that ‘shy’ – or should that read ‘embarrassed’ – republicans who won’t endorse Trump publicly but will do so on the ballot paper could help him to a historic win.

Eyes are now fixed on the battleground states like Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Pennsylvania where a surge in Republican support would likely carry their man into the White House.

Michigan has also grown in importance electorally, hence Monday night’s rally and visits yesterday from Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton for separate rallies.

They were seeking to ensure the state, part of the so-called ‘blue wall’, doesn’t overturn a 28-year tradition of backing the Democrats.

As Air Force One hit the Michigan tarmac yesterday morning the RealClearPolitics average of all polls was giving Obama’s preferred successor a four-point lead in the state.

With the FBI probe into her email account closed for the meantime, Clinton is hoping she’s successfully ridden out the worst of the campaign’s adverse publicity.

It won’t be long before we know whether hope triumphs over fear.