VOA常速英语:Next US President Faces Divided Country No Matter Who Wins(翻译)

In the final hours before Election Day,Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are making a furious last-minute push for votes,ensuring their core supporters get out to the polls.Trump continues to make a strong push in the key swing state of Florida.

“We are on the cusp of an incredible, historic change that transfers power from a failed political establishment and returns that power to our families, communities and citizens, to you.”

Clinton tried to rally supporters in Arizona, which usually votes Republican.

“And when your kids and grandkids ask what you did in 2016, when everything was on the line,I want you to be able to say, I voted for a better, stronger, fairer America.”

Both candidates are focused on rallying their base supporters.With Clinton hoping to re-energize the coalition that elected Barack Obama twice,Says Republican strategist John Feehery.

“It is a liberal, progressive party of coalitions, ethnic coalitions.And the Republican Party is a coalition of basically white voters who are various stripes of conservatism.”

The partisan lean of most voters makes it difficult to win over members of the other party,says election expert Jennifer Lawless.

“We have gotten past the point now where people who are partisans,and who identify as strong or leaning partisans, will cross party lines,either because of the sex of the candidate or because of some unappealing feature.”

And no matter the outcome on Tuesday, that partisan divide is not going away,says historian Allen Lichtman.

“I think no matter which candidate wins, the political polarization is only going to get worse.”

Lichtman believes many Democrats will have a hard time accepting a Trump victory.

“Donald Trump has demeaned so many people in America and even said he would lock up his opponent if he gets elected,and I think many Clinton supporters are not going to accept the legitimacy of a Donald Trump presidency.”

But a Clinton victory could easily antagonize Trump supporters, says Scot Faulkner.

“She is totally disingenuous, again,one of the most, singly not just corrupt,but probably insincere people to ever get the nomination of a major party.”

But the bigger question is whether whoever wins the election will be able to bring the country together afterward, says historian Lee Edwards.

“They are going to have to work at bridging those gaps and bringing people together.It is going to be incumbent upon them.Because, after all, both of them or either one of them is going to be president of all the people.”

Given the sharp differences in the country that exist for decades,trying to bring the country together after a device of election,will likely be the next president’s greatest political challenge, be it Clinton or Trump.

Jim Malone, VOA news, Washington.