Anyone writing about “America” as if it was a homogeneous whole with a high level of sovereignty and a universal culture is heading down a blind alley. It’s the most diverse, culturally mixed and economically divided nation on earth. Even Disraeli’s “Two Nations” descriptor doesn’t come close to describing it. It’s far more than two.
The US was created by immigration and the sentimental idea of a uniting “melting pot” is fading away. The Hispanic population (63m) is now large enough and confident enough to represent a distinctive Spanish speaking minority that has less need to assimilate than in the past. Other minorities are also flexing their muscles.
50m Americans are of African heritage (black) and like the Hispanics they have built their own identity and culture. Black Lives Matter in more ways than one. Successful Afro-Americans in business and politics (etc.) detach themselves from this. Neither Obama nor Harris has much in common with others of their ethnicity.
The determination of all America politicians to eschew a welfare state means that poverty is rife. Life expectancy in prosperous states is eight years higher than in Mississippi. To understand why many Americans voted for Trump, and will again, visit the boondocks of deprived America. It’s a protest against power and privilege – they’ve nothing to lose. Ironically many with that power and privilege will vote Trump as well! He’s built an unlikely and intellectually bereft coalition.
Paddy’s Blogs in a crazy world 
Matthew Syed, in The Sunday Times today, writes a good piece about the great divide in America. The real divide is the population’s brilliance and uselessness. Syed is right. The divide in the States is not so much about race as it once was but education. The haves and have-nots are a direct result of a good or poor, or even none at all exposure to a decent education.
If as I suspect the uneducated are now in a majority. Trump will walk the election. The election results barometer will expose the US to a shameful legacy of a lack of decent educational standards and therefore opportunity.
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