Obligatory US election post

[strange_complex]

I can't help feeling today rather like the Italian allies apparently felt on the eve of the Social War in 91 BC. They fought alongside the Romans on campaign, and were therefore profoundly affected by Roman foreign policy. Rome's enemies were their enemies, and Rome's campaigns were their campaigns. But they had no vote in Rome, and thus no say in the decision-making process that lay behind declarations of war.

Velleius Paterculus describes their situation thus:

In every year and in every war they served with twice as many foot and horse as the Romans, and yet were not given the right of citizenship in the very state which had reached through their efforts so high a position that it could look with contempt on men of the same race and blood as if they were outsiders and foreigners. (Roman History 2.15.2)

Their reaction was to rebel against Roman power, causing warfare throughout Italy: an action which in fact resulted in them getting exactly what they wanted, since the Romans realised that extending the vote to the whole of Italy was a small price to pay for peace and stability on their doorstep.

I'm not saying anything of the sort is either desirable or necessary now - it would be far better if the United States simply stopped throwing its weight around so much, and dragging the rest of us into its ill-thought-out wars. But I empathise with that sense of frustration. Today the world's future is being decided by the electorate of one nation. And all the rest of us can do is stand there crossing our fingers.

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Comments

[greenelephant.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Imagine how we feel up here north of the 49th parallel. What's more, and more telling, there's been more fervent attention to the U.S. election than to our own federal election held just three weeks ago.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

yes, but Canada just returned the conservative candidate again... sigh! As someone who comes from a similarly undernoticed country (Ireland), sometimes it's good to turn my eyes to a country where dramatic upsets can happen, rather than the Irish model of returning the same crooked party decade in, decade out...

[greenelephant.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I had no part in electing pretty much the same awful minority government (same situation, now with an added cost of $3M!).

There *is* something thrilling about the anticipation (years long) in U.S. elections. The downside is that the campaigns run so long that I often wonder how any governing gets done, but the excitement when one gets to the end, and the closeness of the race certainly beats boring predictability.

I blame The West Wing. :-)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

the campaigns run so long that I often wonder how any governing gets done

Yeah, I've often wondered about that. Maybe it makes more sense from the inside, to people who really understand about each state having its own distinct identity, and therefore needing direct and individual attention from the campaigning candidates. But it seems downright weird from the UK perspective. I'm glad we have limits on that sort of thing over here.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

P.S. - I do agree with you about how annoying US cultural hegemony is in principle, just so's you know!