DANA PERINO: Election night 2024 is here and now America decides

We are living in a time of instant gratification -press a button to order dinner and it is delivered minutes later.

But we are in for a longer wait tonight.  

It will take time for us to find out who our next president will be.

HARRIS, TRUMP CONCLUDE CAMPAIGNING - NOW IT'S UP TO THE VOTERS AS ELECTION DAY 2024 GETS UNDERWAY

This is one of the few nights when Americans all get together to await the results -- and the excitement and dread are palpable. 

This is the longest campaign in our history. 

But people don't live in history. They live in the here and now. 

And they're not looking at demographic trends or parsing the Federal Reserve's report. 

They live by their monthly bills and by their hopes and dreams for their lives and their children's and grandchildren's future.

Many people feel misplaced and misunderstood. Seventy-four percent of America thinks we are moving in the wrong direction. That's incredible - 74% of people barely agree on the color of the sky anymore. 

MILLIONS OF VOTERS HIT THE POLLS TO DECIDE WHO TAKES THE WHITE HOUSE AS ELECTION DAY IN FULL-SWING

When you add a major political realignment and a gigantic gender gap, you have a huge disconnect at a time when partisanship has seeped into every crevice of our country. 

At the same time, people are experiencing news and information in ways we don't really fully understand. 

Take just about any guy's Twitter feed vs any woman's TikTok follows, and the viewpoints are starkly different. The impact of this is unknown. 

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But it's not going back to the way it was when I made my sister Angie get up and change the channel on the television set.

We end the campaign with former President Trump more popular than he's ever been. He withstood two assassination attempts. He's campaigned tirelessly and ruthlessly. It may work.

Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned cautiously and almost quietly, avoiding taking positions and answering questions and having inherited a situation where Democrats were abandoning President Biden at a rapid clip. And it may work.

Two very different approaches. The tightest election in memory. And soon, the polls will close, and we'll know a lot more. Settle in and watch the show. 

Because tonight - America decides.

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