Henry Abbott

From 1645 to 1646, Parliament Hall in St. Andrews was used as the meeting place for the Scottish Parliament to discuss its ideas and lay plans for its kingdom and country. Today, it’s used to house a debate every Thursday for the St. Andrew’s Debate Society. Last Thursday, three members of the Scottish Parliament came to the hall to discuss whether or not they have confidence in the Labour government. Everyone else in the room was a student there to watch, listen, laugh, learn and critique.

The biggest laugh of the night came after one of the members made a joke somewhere along the lines of  “at least we can debate together without claiming that some people are eating the cats and dogs in a neighborhood.”

And with that reference, which I think almost everyone in the Western hemisphere has been made aware of through online memes and discourse, I realized that American politics is the fodder on which the rest of the world feeds to make light of their own issues. The reference made me realize that in the U.K., politics may be messy and complicated, but compared to America, their democracy is functioning and lively.

However, I also learned that American politics are clearly ingrained in the minds of people who live thousands of miles away from the U.S. The laughter in the room after that joke was proof of the relevancy of American politics from across the world.

This debate occurred around two days after the presidential debate in Philadelphia. I wish I could say I stayed up until 2 a.m. to watch it from the U.K., but I like to think I do sometimes have the wherewithal to make good decisions, especially when it comes to sleep. So instead, I had the privilege of waking up to about a dozen text messages from my mother about it—thanks for the spoilers, Mom!

I found a YouTube video replaying the debate from ABC News and proceeded to watch. I was prepared to talk about it with maybe one or two other Americans. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the number of non-Americans who wanted to talk with me about American politics after they watched parts of the debate.

Over the next week, I found myself trying to explain to people from Denmark, England, Italy and more how we as a country ended up with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris being on the ticket for the 2024 election. And, once again, I was shocked at how well-versed the non-Americans were with American politics.

It seems like while America is tapping out of this election, the rest of the world is tuning in.

Really though, what does it say about our country if the world is more informed about our politics than we are?

In 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, 34% of Americans decided to completely sit out the presidential election—and those numbers are better compared to the 40% of Americans who didn’t vote in 2016.

You’ve probably heard these statistics already, and I know it seems futile to bring them up again. But, when you think about how invested non-Americans are in this election, you really start to realize how important and impactful American politics are to people everywhere.

No matter your opinion on the issue, our nation’s politics impact hundreds of millions of people across the globe. To get just one small picture of it, you only have to look at the 800 American military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad. It doesn’t matter whether you like how much influence we have across the world or not—the fact is American elections matter to people beyond our borders.

And you, you have the power to decide where and how that influence is placed. You’ve heard it before, but I’ll just say it once again in hopes it might ring true: Your vote really does matter, so use it.