Shops are being boarded up and guns removed from supermarkets such as Walmart as they prepare for the worst.
America really is that fearful that sparks could fly depending on the result of tonight’s Presidential election showdown.
The fight in the final few hours isn’t just for the swing states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
It really is for America’s soul. For its future. It really is to determine whether the country will continue going up in flames under Donald Trump or whether Joe Biden will begin a period of healing.
The turnout is expected to be the highest for years as voters defy the coronavirus and travel for miles to ensure their voices are heard.
And over here it matters too. It matters to you and me because when it all shakes down we’ll find out whether the United States will continue setting an agenda for the likes of Boris Johnson and the other controversial populists across Europe emboldened by Trump.
Or whether Johnson – who sold himself as the PM with the ear of the man-child in the White House – will find himself out in the cold.
We’ll discover if Trump’s arrogant, reckless (non-existent) coronavirus policy (the US is among the worst countries for deaths and infections per capita in the world) will continue killing people across the country. Whether sanity will crawl from the wreckage of the past four years.
Or whether Biden’s respect for the virus and willingness to work with the rest of the world will start saving lives.
The result will tell us whether lawless police forces will be allowed to continue killing young black men, women and children with impunity. Or whether the shock waves from the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake have led to the change America needs to see.
Victory for Biden – no friend of Johnson – would leave the struggling UK Prime Minister naked, clutching his scattergun policy on the hoof which has wrecked lives, cost jobs and isolated the nation in an unstable world.
If some kind of sanity (Biden is far from perfect) prevails over there then maybe, just maybe, it could follow suit over here. It matters. Tonight will be more than just a tense watch.
