America Goes To The Polls

The world watches American presidential elections avidly, and the world is seldom disappointed. When the elections turn out well, they are hailed as the global model for ‘democracy in action’. When they turn out not-so-well, they provide a schadenfreude festival for every country that has ever been plagued by the things the United States has been spared: fascism, communism, enemy occupation and collaboration, rigid class animosities, military dictatorships, mob rule, and – in the case of Luxembourg, Switzerland and Scandinavia – terminal political boredom. Every four years the rest of the world looks to America expecting high drama or low comedy. And America always delivers the goods.