With just four days until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump delivered their closing arguments to the American people, and the difference between these two competing visions could not be greater.

Harris is looking ahead with her most enduring campaign slogans, urging Americans to take action. “turn the page” and reassure them “We won’t be back.” HE commitments Incorporating reproductive freedom into law, help first time homeowners, put a check Against companies that see disasters as chances to make profits make sure that people do not face financial disaster while caring for their loved ones.

“America, we have been consumed by too much division, chaos and mutual distrust for too long,” he said in a stirring speech on the National Mall on Tuesday. “It is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and so am I. I am ready to provide that leadership as the next president of the United States.”

Then there’s Trump, whose campaign looks to the past, whether it’s to assuage long-standing grudges or to glorify some of the darkest days in American history. His hateful Madison Square Garden rally to his American friends this week “enemy from within.”

“We are facing something much bigger and much more powerful than Joe or Kamala, which is a massive, vicious, twisted, radical left machine that runs today’s Democratic Party,” Trump said. declared. “They are actually enemies from within. But that’s who we’re fighting against.”

Trump promised Use a law from 1798 Deporting millions of people on a scale unprecedented in American history. swore arrest political rivals And forgive them who sought to violently overthrow the peaceful transfer of power. Instead of calling people to a cause greater than revenge, he fueled people’s basest instincts.

That darkness was revealed this week when comedian Tony Hinchcliffe stood atop a podium emblazoned with the Trump-Vance campaign logo at an MSG rally. He told about Puerto Rico – an American territory – as a “garbage island”. Hinchcliffe also made crass comments about the reproductive habits of Latinos and advanced racist stereotypes about Black Americans.

While the campaign has issued milquetoast condemnations of the alleged jokes, Trump himself has yet to publicly apologize.

The comments sparked a wave of support for Harris from prominent Puerto Ricans like Ricky Martin. Bad Rabbit and Jennifer Lopez (and, incredibly, the reggaeton star’s rescinding of her support for Trump) NickyJam). Republican candidates have sought to separate Hinchcliffe’s words from the values ​​of the Republican Party. It didn’t take long for the Harris campaign to turn the comments into an ad.

Hate is not limited to speech; It was also reflected in last-minute efforts by Republicans to exclude some Americans from the election process.

As recently as Wednesday, the Supreme Court, including three Trump-appointed justices, confirmed that lie by allowing Virginia to purge more than a thousand voters suspected of being non-citizens.

Lee County Republican Party chairman last week instructed The 1,800 volunteers, a so-called election protection group, wrote that “if you have people you’re registered with and their information is missing… and they’ve registered in the last 90 days before the election, and they’re someone with last names that sound Hispanic, they’re probably a skeptical voter.”

League of United Latin American Citizens in Texas criticized He blamed pro-Trump Attorney General Ken Paxton for targeting Latino activists and public officials, even raiding their homes, as part of an investigation into non-citizen voting that they said was fraudulent.

He also has one of Trump’s most dastardly plans: to deport 11 million undocumented people in the US, tearing families apart and destroying the US economy.

In his closing remarks, Trump reminded us who he sees as Americans and who he doesn’t. His definition is not really determined by documents, legal status, or place of birth. An amorphous thing determined by what might propel him to power. Given this power, it is possible for the black voters he is courting to step outside his definition of who counts as an American.

Most elections present voters with competing visions for the future. But it may determine which of two wildly different Americas we live in.