For those of you who have responded to my post:
@TankFlyBossW4lk @Locutus2000 and others, apologies if I've not namechecked you:
I'm not 'trying to be clever', I'm just passing on a genuine US point of view which is not as often seen on MN.
I comprehend that that is utterly GUTTING for the educated masses on MN but ...
most Americans REALLY do not think about the rest of the planet. They REALLY don't think beyond the end of their driveway. They REALLY vote with their next week's pay check and utility bill in mind.
As such, US citizens are not at all considering how US policy will affect the rest of the planet. They do not see themselves as 'unleashing hell' on the rest of the planet. Surprising to MN, most US citizens are much too modest for that. They do not see themeslves as voting for what is, effectively, a planet-wide policy. They have no idea what their votes will wreak on the rest of the planet. They area really just thinking about their retirement plans and their grandchildren and their heating bill. If you said to them that their votes affect people across the planet in countries they've never heard of they'd be genuinely gobsmacked.
US citizens who care about the planet and its countries know that US policies have a huge impact but they are in the minority and although they vote as UK MNs might want, they cannot make much progress with their votes.I, personally, do comprehend that US policy affects the rest of the planet. Although just one vote, I made the effort to secure an overseas ballot and voted as loudly as one vote could for Kamala.
Consider though that at the lunch table, no one rounds on the UK citizen and demands to know how they voted or why. No one asks, Sophie in packing why she voted for Brexit because the WHOLE WORLD IS SUFFERING.
Likewise, who is demanding to know which Israeli or Palestinian ex-pats voted for Netanyahu or the Hamas candidate? That would be a bit rude, woudn't it ...
As a US citizen abroad, I often find it impossible to balance the expectations: either the US is a 'bully' imposing their policy or they are too slow to wade in and resolve a (minor) conflict with a unilateral (pro-American stance, go figure) solution. No matter the president, who is usually a pawn of his/her party, US policy is considered to be wrong and I have been given long-winded chaper and verse about policies I didn't vote for and don't support and can't change but it was still my fault...)