I usually prefer to draw more attention to the translations on Watching America than to the articles that are originally written in English and therefore just linked on that site… but last week I got a bit excited about an article from the British press about the U.S. election, which was replete with British irreverence and cynicism. That article was from a left-of-center of British paper, The Guardian, but, I am delighted to see that the conservative press in the U.K. is keeping the British end up too.
An article in The Telegraph, linked on Watching America, posits a (rather nice) hypothetical world which is described by its headline, “If Only We Could Vote for the Next U.S. President”
I often say that there is so much good foreign content about the U.S. on Watching America because non-Americans are often affected more strongly by aspects of American policy than are Americans themselves, and so have plenty to say about the world’s only superpower (although not for much longer).
This fact also explains why the rest of the world is covering the Presidential election so closely. But the piece from the Telegraph takes my assertion to another, and altogether wittier, level…
Many Britons will feel it would be rather nice to have a vote, too. Well, maybe not a whole vote: I would settle for one worth 50 per cent of those cast by American citizens.
After all, since we are a strategic colony of the US, it would be nice to have even a marginal say in how the empire chooses to dispose our goodwill and our blood and treasure. Such considerations were explicit in the founding of the US, and what’s sauce for the goose…
And here’s a look at the American political process with the kind of sarcasm that you can always rely on from the Brits, if you like that kind of thing.
On February 5, at least 22 states will hold primaries or caucuses – the old, now obsolete “Super Tuesday” in 2004 caused untold excitement with just 10 states taking part, so one can only imagine the thrill of this year’s event.
And there’s plenty of unapologetic opinion too.
On Clinton,
All the criticisms levelled at Mrs Clinton are predictable, given how she has behaved ever since she came into the international public eye as First Lady 15 years ago: she has seemed arrogant, she has ruthlessly trimmed, tacked or changed her line on various issues, she has been vague about others, and, of course, she is still married to Bill Clinton.
On McCain,
Mr McCain, whom America would have elected in 2004 if it had had any sense, wheels out his 95-year old mother to prove that he, as a man who would be 72 when he began any presidency, has plenty of fight left in him.
And why do the British care? Well,
We are supposedly the main ally. It may be possible to discern what might be in store for us once it is possible to discern more clearly who might be the next president.
Or, along with an American people still wildly uninterested in what happens abroad, we may be in the dark even then.
We had all better watch carefully, but be prepared to know nothing about our fate until after November 4: except that it may not matter in that respect who ends up winning, for the State Department advice will be the same whoever receives it.
And, after the past seven years, it would take a president braver (or more reckless) than any currently in the lists to do then what he or she, rather than it, wants.
Go here for the article and to Watching America for foreign coverage of the presidential election.
Robin Koerner is a British-born citizen of the USA, who currently serves as Academic Dean of the John Locke Institute. He holds graduate degrees in both Physics and the Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge (U.K.). He is also the founder of WatchingAmerica.com, an organization of over 100 volunteers that translates and posts in English views about the USA from all over the world.
Robin may be best known for having coined the term “Blue Republican” to refer to liberals and independents who joined the GOP to support Ron Paul’s bid for the presidency in 2012 (and, in so doing, launching the largest coalition that existed for that candidate).
Robin’s current work as a trainer and a consultant, and his book If You Can Keep It , focus on overcoming distrust and bridging ideological division to improve politics and lives. His current project, Humilitarian, promotes humility and civility as a basis for improved political discourse and outcomes.