[jonbxx]

My 16 year old who is now studying Government and Politics A Level was very much ‘why?’, ‘how?’ at the news this morning. Based on living there for a bit (albeit in the fairly liberal north west but in a less well off area) and working with Americans on an almost daily basis, I gave my perspective. Here’s what I shared;

Americans are scared
The US is an incredibly powerful nation and people living there should be rightly proud of that. However, under this there is an undercurrent of fear. If you ask gun owners in the USA why they have guns, they will say for protection. In another example, I frequent cooking sub reddits and the number of Americans who are scared of using plastics, scared of leaving food unrefrigerated, etc. is huge. This is very different from the ‘I am sure it will all work out’ attitude most brits have. Trump is very good at leaning on those fears - Kamala Harris will let all the immigrants in, take away your guns, etc. Fear is stronger than hope

Americans love winning
Winning is hugely important to Americans but more important is the other side losing. Alex Horne tried to launch Taskmaster in the USA and it bombed because everyone was so competitive. If you look at successful panel shows in the UK like Have I Got News for You, Taskmaster, etc. we don’t actually care about who wins as long as we were entertained. A lot of Americans do not have that psyche. On top of that is the zero sum game where it’s so important not just to win but to make sure the other side loses. ‘Owning the libs’ is a strong attractor. They might not agree 100% with what someone says or does but if it disadvantages people they don’t like, then that’s great. This means that compromise is a lose lose outcome. Kamala Harris saying we will talk to Republicans who don’t agree with her is not a winning look.

Strong leaders are attractive
This is not so just a USA thing but a more right of centre politics thing and is in danger of evoking Godwins Law… Fearful people who like winning love a strong leader, someone who is channeling their thoughts, someone to look up to. They can quickly support people with those traits as ‘one of our own’ even when their background shows they clearly aren’t. It’s a type of confirmation bias. Now we British are very strong with that trait. Look at politicians who have very strong personal followings that are treated as ‘one of us’. Not naming names here but privileged upbringings, public school and Oxbridge educated but somehow are branded as an average Joe. Trump leans on that and his supporters believe he is on their side. Kamala Harris appeared more distant and removed from the general public.

The Democrats will learn from this but it does show how strong a tool populism is