The reason the world cares about U.S. elections

I received a message with this question, and decided to reply to it in concise text. If I were to speak of over 200 years of history, this would be too long to be only a reply.

Q: I’m curious as to why you are so interested in American politics. Do you feel America has such a huge impact on your life? Why? As an American, I’m unable to know your perspective and the influence.

My answer: You see, the U.S.A. is the world’s biggest economy, involved in wars. Trading with the U.S is particularly important for every country, hence the problems involving competition with China. People from other countries usually study English as a second language. Politics is not simply something the president says. It involves a globalized economy in which the U.S. is considered an hegemonic power in the world, and to the political scientists who don’t think so, they will say that the U.S.A. is one of the most influential countries in the world, for its decisions, its strong currency, for its wars, for its industry, for their interest in trading with other countries or any type of interest they might have.

In the 1960s, the U.S.A. supported many military coups in Latin America out of fear we would follow communist politics, even in countries such as Brazil, that didn’t have a strong communist community and the country would keep on going with capitalism. The outcome was dictatorship from the military and hundreds of thousands died horrific deaths after being tortured all over Latin America. Many of them were never found. Justice was never really served.

Last year, the fact that Trump is president influenced Brazilian elections, and Bolsonaro is now president, with the same catch phrases Trump used. He said he would make our country better, get rid of all the bad politicians. He even tried to have a partnership with Trump, but Donald just ignores him, because even Donald Trump knows better than to talk to our president.

No one is completely disconnected from the U.S.A. in this world. Not even the countries who hate, because they still track every move the U.S. makes and will continue to use the country’s mere existence in their hate speeches.

I will always tell this to anyone in a country where voting is not mandatory (here in Brazil it is): Vote. Use democracy in your favor. Take your right as an individual to build a strong collective force that can really change countries. And if the change doesn’t happen, don’t let the government ever keep you quiet. You must demand your rights from the people who are there because of your vote.