Americans Will Never Love Us Back
So why follow their election drama?
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I don’t care about the American presidential election.
That’s just as well. Because the American presidential election doesn’t care about me. I don’t have a vote. My views on who should win are worse than a spoiled ballot. They’re no ballot at all.
I’m in ample company. The vast majority of people living in Canada and the UK have no say in the US election. Yet many of them appear to take an unusual interest in this faraway event, as if it were something we should care deeply about. And as if by caring, we could actually do something about it. As if the election were, in some way, about us.
The Canadian and British media play a big role in encouraging this magical thinking, churning out endless stories about the US election, often nudging urgent local and national news off the page. The problem with this coverage isn’t just that it’s repetitive and boring as hell. It takes us for suckers, as if by reading and talking enough about the American election we will become part of it. Encouraging us to imagine, even for a blissful moment, that those who can directly influence the results have our best interests at heart.
But nothing about this election is about “us”. There are no such things as “Canadian interests” or “British interests”. Even if there were, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be utmost on Americans’ minds. It’s not clear how the outcome of the presidential election will change things beyond the borders of the United States. What we do know is that even if foreign policy plays a more prominent role in this election than it has in the past, US voters still prioritise national over international issues. Americans are perfectly capable of thinking about themselves. The don’t need the rest of us to do it for them.
While everyone else was watching THE debates over the summer, I was debating these questions with assorted people on the ground. My Canadian friends and family assure me that it really does matter who wins, that they don’t think they could stomach another four years of Trump. The US is so close. We go on holiday there. Ignoring Trump won’t make him go away. So we need to be really worried and put lots of energy into following this election. As if Canadians sending waves of “Go Harris!” vibes across the border could make Trump disappear into thin air.
Then there are the many people in Canada and the UK with friends and family in the US. We love these people. We don’t want them to have to put up with four more years of a racist, misogynist creep. Thing is, we have quite a few of those characters in our own countries – in our houses of parliament, on our police forces, on our streets. In August, the UK experienced the worst far-right violence in decades, targeting Muslims, Black people and migrants. From late August to late September, nine Indigenous people died during encounters with police in Canada. Every second spent expressing horror at yet another carefully crafted outrageously offensive Trumpism is a second that would be better spent holding our politicians and police to account for these outrages in the countries where we live, and doing anti-racist organising in our own communities.
But shouldn’t we be excited that the first ever Black woman might get elected to the White House? Surely that will be a great victory for diversity! Then again, it might just be tokenism. Either way, it’s not like the United State is the only country in the world where race, gender and representation are important political issues. Or like a Harris victory would guarantee a boost for intersectional feminism everywhere.
The fears unleashed in much of the world by the possibility of another Republican in the White House – and that Republican in particular – are real and understandable. But in Canada and the UK those fears can have the effect of setting the US apart – such a grotesque parody of democracy, so exceptionally militaristic and neoliberal, it makes the rest of the West look all warm and fuzzy. The focus on Trump provides a foil for the inequalities and violence in our own countries. It distracts from the fact that, as history teaches us, time and again the British and Canadian governments fall into line behind US foreign policy, actively supporting military aggression all over the world. The ongoing catastrophes in Palestine and now Lebanon are the latest examples.
If we want to make common cause with Americans committed to social justice and anti-imperialism, we are much better off building alliances with grassroots activists than putting our faith in Washington.
But for most people outside the US (and perhaps inside that country too) big questions about how to affect real change are peripheral to the drama playing out on the main stage and the front page. The presidential race is first and foremost a form of entertainment (the Guardian online recently invited readers to follow its coverage by clicking on the link, “Can’t get enough of the US election?”). The 2024 presidential race has indeed proven, if not exactly quality viewing, at least less formulaic than whatever’s on Netflix or all the other platforms that churn out the same old schlock. We all need a little trash tellie in our lives.
For those of us who can’t vote in the US, maybe the best we can ever hope to get from any American election is a bit of distraction before bedtime. Something to turn off from the day before a good night’s sleep. And then get up and do some politics where we might actually be able to make a difference.
Pen in Fist is written by me, Carrie Lou Hamilton. You can find my other writing and projects here. If you like what you read, you can get a paid subscription or leave me a tip.
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Yes! I’ve been thinking lately about how it often feels like Canada finds it at least suspicious that I pay attention to UK news (and downright eccentric to do the same for any other country) yet it’s taken for granted that we need to know every minute-by-minute detail of the U.S.
I enjoyed this Carrie - especially the points about how the entertainment of the race seems to be a perfect opportunity to distract us (and others) from the shit that’s going on in our own countries. While the showbiz side of the election is something I’ve always been aware of, seeing it in direct contrast to the UKs in the summer has been really thought provoking - the role of money in politics in the US, the celebrity status, how far is it about garnering support and then how much does it take away from the bread and butter of what the job first and foremost is about?