A European View Of America’s Elections
The election of America’s next president will have vast global effects. This is inevitable, due both to the United States’ pre-eminence and the nature of globalised economics, and means that the current tangle of primaries and caucuses to decide the parties’ nominees is watched with great attention around the world.
The atypical nature of this election, which is dominated – at least in media coverage – by insurgent, anti-establishment candidates, has also piqued a great deal of international interest. In Europe especially, the reaction to the American election is unlike anything I can remember, even when considering the scope and scale of the love affair my continent had – and to an extent still exhibits – with Barack Obama.
The European view of the Democratic contest is an interesting one, especially as most European countries lean to the left of the United States on economic issues. One might expect Europeans to be enthusiastic supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, but the perhaps surprising thing is that this simply isn’t the case. While there are devoted fan clubs of both candidates – students in particular, dismissed by a friend of mine at Edinburgh University as “over-excited first-time primary watchers,” seem to ‘feel the Bern’ more than is sensible – it’s notable how apathetic many others seem.
After all, many appear to think, Sanders does not seem fresh and exciting to a continent full of socialist parties; his much-vaunted freshness has none of the appeal it is said to exercise over part of the American electorate. And anyway, he has very little chance of winning, so why bother getting excited?
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Sure is empty down here...