How much do you care who wins the US election?

[bravousa]

Background: UK citizen here, residing in the UK and generally don't trust politicians.

I may be weird but I don't really care that much who wins the US election. AIBU? Everyone seems to be obsessed.

I feel for the Americans if they get stuck with Trump for another 4 years, however that problem feels so remote from my day to day reality and worries here in the UK. And what do I know about Biden? Absolutely nothing other than he seems like a nice old man.

So do you care? If so, why?

(Obviously if you have strong connection to the US either by citizenship, family or business, I assume you will care. This question is mainly for those of us who don't).

"Miljea
I care because I don't want my un-labelled chicken to be American chlorine washed.

Oh, and for the POTUS to be a climate-change denier.
The chicken argument is not an issue, we will always have a choice to buy local and organic birds"

What a comfortable, middle class retort.

I can now buy a MN Asda chicken for £3. Or a 'red tractor' one (whose credentials aren't actually that great) for £6. Or a wholly local, organic one for £8.

If I'm struggling financially, which one might I choose? At least the £3 one has met minimal EU standards. And isn't chlorine washed as that doesn't meet EU standards.

The US one won't have to.

And we aren't allowed to know, because 'county of origin' doesn't have to be declared if the proposed US trade deal, with us, prevails.

@Cocopogo

I don’t care at all. In uk.

Oh, you should. Who wins will have an enormous impact on us, post Brexit, 'great new trading deals', going forward.

Has that seriously not occurred to you?

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

Trump is a maniac - and dangerous for him to be in a position of power. Not massively keen on Biden, but hoping he wins and for some reason has to take a backseat pretty quickly and Kamala Harris comes to the fore.

There are quite a few maniac leaders in the world, some sitting on piles of nuclear arsenal and crushing human rights (North Korea, Saudi Arabia?) You are not seems to worry about them. Trump may be dangerous but in relation to the UK and our day to day freedom and values here he seems irrelevant. On the "Dangerous" criteria I'll be loosing sleep over Putin more. Hence I am not scared of Trump (just dislike his personality, his leadership, values and campaign style).

we will always have a choice to buy local and organic birds
Well you might always have that choice bravousa. I probably will too, though I am steadily increasing the amount of meat free meals that I am cooking to get my family used to being served smaller amounts of expensive meat post Brexit.
But you can't seriously believe that "we", as in the entire nation, have the choice to buy locally reared organic chicken? I suppose if you view buying organic chicken or paying your electricity bill as a genuine choice you are right, but the reality for millions is that no, they can't just buy organic. It will be the most disadvantaged families who already have the poorest diets who will end up buying chlorinated chicken and other lower standard foods after Brexit, through lack of knowledge, lack of alternative or both.

I suspect the main reason a lot of people worry about Trump more than other crazy world leaders is that the media in those other countries is generally not in English, so is less accessible.

@MrsAvocet

we will always have a choice to buy local and organic birds Well you might always have that choice bravousa. I probably will too, though I am steadily increasing the amount of meat free meals that I am cooking to get my family used to being served smaller amounts of expensive meat post Brexit. But you can't seriously believe that "we", as in the entire nation, have the choice to buy locally reared organic chicken? I suppose if you view buying organic chicken or paying your electricity bill as a genuine choice you are right, but the reality for millions is that no, they can't just buy organic. It will be the most disadvantaged families who already have the poorest diets who will end up buying chlorinated chicken and other lower standard foods after Brexit, through lack of knowledge, lack of alternative or both.

You will have plenty non-organic and local chicken on the shelfs. Iike with so many products, I can chose to buy tomato's from the Netherlands or Kent. You will have options. Tesco, Lidl will not only stock chicken from the US.

Caring for the US election because of chickens is to melodramatic

@Miljea

"Miljea I care because I don't want my un-labelled chicken to be American chlorine washed.

Oh, and for the POTUS to be a climate-change denier.
The chicken argument is not an issue, we will always have a choice to buy local and organic birds"

What a comfortable, middle class retort.

I can now buy a MN Asda chicken for £3. Or a 'red tractor' one (whose credentials aren't actually that great) for £6. Or a wholly local, organic one for £8.

If I'm struggling financially, which one might I choose? At least the £3 one has met minimal EU standards. And isn't chlorine washed as that doesn't meet EU standards.

The US one won't have to.

And we aren't allowed to know, because 'county of origin' doesn't have to be declared if the proposed US trade deal, with us, prevails.

Agree; that was such a twatty thing to say. I'm sorry, but it was.

I am by no means struggling financially, but I cannot afford to 'choose' to buy organic meat. We don't eat much red meat any more (we eat sausages and offal) and we go veggie. That's perfectly fine, but it is absolutely stupid to shrug off wider issues of food safety and affordability. The way we are going, we are going to further harm poorer families who just cannot afford to feed themselves in a healthy way. It's already hard enough.

There are quite a few maniac leaders in the world, some sitting on piles of nuclear arsenal and crushing human rights (North Korea, Saudi Arabia?) You are not seems to worry about them. Trump may be dangerous but in relation to the UK and our day to day freedom and values here he seems irrelevant. On the "Dangerous" criteria I'll be loosing sleep over Putin more. Hence I am not scared of Trump (just dislike his personality, his leadership, values and campaign style).

It’s one thing for non-democratic countries to be led by maniacs.

Quite another for a democratic, richest and most powerful nation in the world to slide into a dictatorship.

If the US fails - and it certainly is in decline, hastened over the last four years - which emerging power is going to fill the vacuum? And what’s their record on democracy and human rights?

@Miljea How? Elaborate.

Everyone saying "massive impact on our lives". How can you be certain Biden will be such a great partner? The Brexit shit is purely our own creation. Blame the UK gov for leading us to no-deal, not the US.

Tbh, I think China/Putin/Kim Jong etc are far more worrying. In spite of all the chicken stuff, I believe the main reason most people hate trump is because he's a misogynistic and entirely unrepentant twat and pretty much the antichrist to lefties.

Well chicken isn't actually my main reason for caring about the result of the election bravousa and I am likely to be less affected by Brexit than many. But I do care about other people and not everyone is going to have genuine choice, whatever might be on the shelves, be that chicken or tomatoes. Many are obliged to buy whatever is cheapest because that is all they can afford. And post Brexit the cheapest is likely to be imported from America where both food standards and animal welfare standards are lower than in the EU.
But ok, "let them eat cake".

@Marchmarch

I care. Trump emboldens other twats to be even bigger twats.

I think something happens when the unthinkable happens. I wonder whether there’s a connection between Corbyn/ 2016 Brexit referendum/ Trump/ Boris. If you wouldn’t vote for the underdog because well, he’s the underdog, but then you can look around and see actually the underdog/ unthinkable candidate does win sometimes you’re going to vote for the underdog/ unthinkable

I dunno. I'm not a huge Trump fan, but I still think a lot of people hate him more for what he represents than for anything else. I'd still rather have a leader who makes misogynistic jokes than a government which makes dissenters disappear in the night never to be seen again.

And let's not forget that Trump represents the majority, or certainly did at the time of last voting. I don't agree with him, but there's no point in democracy unless we support a democratic vote.

@LaurieFairyCake

sst1234

That's not true

Trump has declared NO policies for this election - none, deliberately!

Biden has come out with a proper manifesto and he's said he will give the WHO the money they owe them

Trump pulled out the Paris climate accord TODAY

Biden will get back in

So what? Genuinely, what difference does that make. About as much as the UN bringing peace to the world. These forums are talking shops, it’s not where the real decisions are made. I am not saying that there some big conspiracy theory, just that realpolitik is not dependent on whether Biden wins or Trump wins. This is just drama.

Because it's 70 years since WW2 and people have forgotten how Hitler came to power. Read some history and take note.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall of the room Trump is raging in right now.

I want a Biden win, if only that I think Biden will be more of a friend to Ireland than Trump is.

@Runningdownthathill

I care desperately. The President of the US is incredibly powerful on the world stage. Having a madman in charge is frankly terrifying. It affects us all.

Did you meet Putin? Quietly poisoning his way to control (on our land), invading countries as he pleases, shooting down passengers plans and sabotaging our national computer systems, all with no real consequences. Trump seems like a pretty nice guy, no?

I don't think Nazi Germany is the best analogy. 😂

UK. I care enormously. As do my children , especially my daughter. We don't want to see an electorate as large as the US saying that women's rights aren't important. We also need Johnson to see that Trump can't survive and it will hopefully send Farage back to his swamp.

I think people are missing the point when they think that Biden can influence trade deals less than Trump can. The real wheelers and dealers are the Washington beurocracy machine. They don’t change, presidents come and go.

I'm obsessed!

I never want to eat a chlorinated chicken or extra pussy milk and I rather like the NHS so everything crossed for a Biden win!!

Right now, I think the most important factor is having somebody who can get us all through the current world crises. I'd love for them to be an upstanding role model, but tbh that's the least concern for me right now.

I'm not saying Trump is the man, and to be fair he made some extremely questionable decisions around the corona situation, but I think many people moaning about him have more issue with him being the epitome of a misogynistic capitalist straight white male etc. I couldn't give a shit about identity politics right now tbh.

Like my mate's brother. Massive lazy stoner who works in a dead end job despite a decent private education. Never had any interest in politics but his Facebook is lately covered with comparisons to Nazi Germany and loads of posts about how bad Trump is for the world. I don't think the guy even really knows how the world wars started!

And let's not forget that Trump represents the majority, or certainly did at the time of last voting.

Am I missing something?

How do you figure that one out? He represents the Electoral College vote. But the ‘majority’....?