Why America matters for all our futures - Alex Cole-Hamilton

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at her campaign headquarters on Monday. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

It’s why, for most of my adult life I’ve been obsessed with American politics and have even tried to get involved as best I can. In 2004, I participated in the dismal Operation Clark County, an ill-fated campaign orchestrated by The Guardian where readers were invited to write to non-aligned voters in Ohio and ask them to vote for John Kerry over George Bush. It backfired.

The recipients of these letters were not at all impressed by a bunch of Brits telling them what to do and my recipient – Mr Atkins of Clark County – even took my letter to the media and issued a furious response. So it was that I became the posterchild for the Guardian’s harebrained wheeze. Four years later I sought redemption and travelled with my wife, infant son and some close friends to knock on doors for Obama in Williamsburg, Virginia. That intervention was more successful. In truth, I had almost given up on this coming presidential election and resigned myself to the horror of another Trump presidency.

But the selfless decision taken by Joe Biden over the weekend, to end his campaign for re-election and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, has given me new hope. She’s still behind in the polls, but for the first time in over a year, it feels like this race could be competitive, like there is at least a chance.

And this presidential election feels more important to global events than most that have gone before it. We are at an inflection point in modern history and we may well come to look back on this time with an understanding that we were already living in the early days of a new Cold War. If Trump wins, it’s likely he will turn his back on the fighting men and women of Ukraine and give succour to Vladimir Putin. He will continue his assault on women’s reproductive rights with further limitations on abortion and he will continue to punch down on minority groups.

Nothing in politics is ever certain, but I still have such faith in the capacity of people to reject the politics of division and of hate. Just ask Marine Le Pen, who for most of the early part of this summer was expected to sweep to power in the French parliamentary elections only to come third. Or Rishi Sunak who hinged his entire campaign on demonising refugees and was sent packing.

This is a massive year for democracy, with more elections taking place at the same time around the world than ever before. It will define our approach to enormous global challenges like our warming planet, the mass displacement of people and Russian aggression. It will either cement the progress we have made towards equality or see that progress rolled back. Every election in every country where there is one will shape part of that story, but what happens in the United States will eclipse everything.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats