Barry Soper: Ugly side of America on full view

Hillary Clinton seems to be getting more desperate by the day in this ugly election. Photo / AP

It's been likened to Keeping up with the Kardashians, the reality TV show but that's being hard on this family.

They do live a chaotic life and are often at odds but they always support each other in the end.

And nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

These New Yorkers are more like the British TV show The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door. The only similarity to the American show is that they're certainly hard to keep up with as they do battle in the states that'll decide who gets to live on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

The latest outburst from Clinton, who seems to be growing more desperate by the day, sees her telling a crowd if they know of anybody who's thinking of voting for Trump to stage an intervention. Now if Trump had said that he'd be accused of inciting a riot.

But then lock-her-up Trump isn't any better, painting a picture of Clinton behind bars, saying if she's elected she'll be under investigation by the FBI for a very long time, culminating in a major trial that'll put her away.

Americans are by nature generally polite, at least on the surface, but this election has exposed an ugly side, fuelled by the inflammatory statements of the participants who should know better.

Even though Clinton has a comfortable lead over Trump with young voters, many of them feel disenfranchised by the Electoral College system. Take the example of the 25-year-old New York businessman from California. He says he's not voting because the system has tied up both his birth and home states so what's the point. He doesn't live in a democracy he says.

But take the 27-year-old African American executive from the Big Apple, who likened the race to the Kardashians, who says she's trading her morals by voting for Clinton, who she doesn't like, but at least she's better than allowing what she calls a sick racist getting into office.

A week ago the likelihood of that would have seemed remote. But with the FBI now a big part of this campaign, Clinton's rightly feeling vulnerable.

She tried to shift the focus from her emails to Trump's abuse of a former Miss Universe who she trotted out on stage in Florida. It doesn't seem to have worked because The Don's edged ahead of her in that pivotal state and he hopes to reinforce that there today.

They're now talking about another Brexit while the world holds its breath until next week.

• Barry Soper is in New York, courtesy of Air New Zealand