Why you’re allowed to care about the US election as a non-American.
Oh boy! It’s that time again. The days are getting shorter, Santa’s only got a few weeks left to prepare, and there’s that special warm feeling we all get when someone criticises us for being interested in US politics even though we don’t live there. Sometimes it’s a yank, sometimes it’s our own countrymen, but whoever it is, there’s a bizarre fallacy and short-sightedness to those who say you’re not supposed to care, despite all the reasons that justify it.
ECONOMY.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t boast about how big and impressive the US is and then say it doesn’t affect you. Ireland alone houses and hosts many American companies, a problem that emerges any time one of these companies (cough, Apple) threatens to leave unless they get better treatment (cough, tax breaks), or when US politicians mention our Tax Haven status and threaten to cut supports and dealings, dangling thousands of layouts over our heads. We’d like to know what kind of crazy we’ll have to deal with.
POPULATION.
America makes up 5% of the world’s population. While that’s peanuts compared to China and India and the continent of Africa, it still makes them the largest English speaking country in the world with many cultural ties spanning the globe. You will cross paths with an American at many points of your life, so it’s in your self interest to have some sort of cultural and societal understanding of their country.
TOURISM.
Even though studies have shown many Americans don’t own a passport and even fewer have travelled abroad, due to their sheer numbers the few who do both are major boosts to our economies. Whether it’s the “I’m trying to find myself” types backpacking through India, the “Look at me, aren’t I so great” missionaries and fund-raisers who just show up in Africa, or the “My great-great-great-great-great-grandparents were from GALL-WAY” tourists who keep asking me for directions in the middle of Grafton Street, we know deep down to smile and nod as they help boast our economies. With the recent years of isolationism and xenophobia growing bolder in the states, we’d like to know what to assume in the future.
WAR.
Maybe some of you are reading this in a country (or you’re from a country) with American troops stationed in it. Ireland’s dirty little secret is that we’re a “neutral” country that casually turns a blind eye to US bomber planes refueling in Shannon airport on their way to the Middle East. The US’s recent criticism of NATO has made Europe feel a little uneasy as Russia flexes it’s might in Ukraine, turning it’s attention to a possible future conflict with China and North Korea. I can’t say a Biden Presidency wouldn’t continue this escalation, but I can’t say a Trump one wouldn’t either.
COVID.
I’m surprised “FLU.S.A! FLU.S.A!” hasn’t caught on (God knows the US has caught other things).
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.
If you’re an American (howdy), you have to admit something; you guys are entertaining as fuck! I’m not even talking about your movies or TV shows (though I can’t wait for the next seasons of Kidding and The Handmaid’s Tale). From shootings, to 200,000+ Covid deaths, to Pizzagate, and now this; a psycopath bordering on declaring civil war on a guy who likes to sniff girls and remind people he has a black friend. I mean, bravo! Take a bow!
Now yes, there’s other equally as impressive series to watch like Brexit Season 4, China’s jump-the-shark moment where they’re just making up stuff as they go along (like man made islands), and even here in Ireland with our favourite sitcom, The Government, with their special two-parter episode featuring Leo Varadkar sending government documents to his friend, but they just don’t have the “pizzazz”, the production value, the balls-to-the-wall twists of the states.
I understand why people are cynical towards interest in the states. Americanisation has already taken over so much of our culture and politics (there’s something just outright funny about an anti-Masker talking about freedom from “the Left” when that freedom was fought for by socialists, feminists, and union leaders), but it’s an interest that comes from a place of pragmatism, of humble admission of our place on the stage of global politics, and of understanding that the days where we only had to be concerned with what was going on down the street are long gone.
(At the time of writing, the US election counts are still incomplete, with Biden at 253 to Trump’s 214).
