In the US election race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, America can't escape the shadow of history

Two different versions of the US are on the table, but both of them are captive to the past. In her first campaign speech as the Democrat's de facto presidential nominee, she framed the election as "a battle for the future". Now that Kamala Harris is heading the Democratic ticket, racism has again come to the fore — what Bill Clinton had called in his second inaugural address America's "constant curse". Thus, in the majority ruling overturning Roe v Wade, Justice Samuel Alito argued that the right to abortion was not "deeply rooted in the nation's history". That was Donald Trump's pet presidential project to push back against what he called a "radicalised view of American history" and to produce a "pro-American" history curriculum.