UK vs US - how alike are they, politically?

[eldar]

Imagine you have a vote in the upcoming US election. How would you vote?

The idea is to see how closely, or not, UK and US voters compare.

[Doofus]

eldar said:

Imagine you have a vote in the upcoming US election. How would you vote?

The idea is to see how closely, or not, UK and US voters compare.

First you have to tell us how closely the candidates/parties compare.

[OutInTheShed]

eldar said:

Imagine you have a vote in the upcoming US election. How would you vote?

The idea is to see how closely, or not, UK and US voters compare.

The US is a special kind of tow-party system.
The primary thing where the plabs select the candidate is particularly 'special'.
The whole directly elected President thing is very different.

I'd probably be more Republican than Democrat, but I'm damned sure I'd not have voted for Trump to be the GOP candidate.

Ted Nugent as pres would have been a laugh?

[Zetec-S]

Doofus said:

First you have to tell us how closely the candidates/parties compare.

Exactly, and when you look closely you realise that neither correlate. We (within reason) share a common language, but beyond that there are very significant differences. Plus you cannot understate the vastness of the US, which plays a much bigger part in politics. It might be one country, but when individual states are so varied how can you make a direct comparison. I live in Dorset, but I can't imagine my political views changing significantly if I moved elsewhere. But in the US I think it has a much bigger impact. If I lived in some declining rust-belt industrial town then I could well be tempted to vote Trump on the basis he would "probably" implement policies more favourable for my local economy.

I've always believed that as a people, of all the nations we're most alike to, it is probably Germany or Denmark. Based on a few personal and professional relationships, I've always found them to be generally along the same wavelength, have a similar outlook, sense of humour, etc.

[InformationSuperHighway]

I can maybe help answer this as I am a Brit living in the US (Non citizen, so non voting).

The best analogy I can use for the current situation (Since the arrival of Trumpism in 2015) is the comparison to Brexit.

The comparison is across all elements of the process, from the two sided opposite nature of the arguments, to the political vitriol to the media reaction / stoking the fire.

Many of the issues are related (Mainly immigration) and the hard 'selling' of both sides of the arguments focused on single threaded issues.

Something not analogous to Brexit but I believe has reared its head in other Western countries since Roe v Wade was taken away is abortion. I am seeing more and more talk of that becoming politicized in other countries as a direct result of what happened here.

The other comparison would be the rise of MAGA within the Republican party having a comparison to Reform within the Conservatives. We'll see in a few days time if MAGA = Republican or if we're now a three party state with MAGA breaking away.

Edited by InformationSuperHighway on Wednesday 30th October 21:49