Decoder: Is the U.S. election really that important?

The Western world is obsessed with the upcoming contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Elsewhere, other things are happening.

Is the United States election really that important? The answer depends on where in the world you ask the question.

“So much hinges on this election,” wrote political commentator Joe Klein in The New York Times on 11 October to explain his vote for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. She is challenging former-President Donald Trump for the presidency. 

Klein said that he based his choice on Harris’ respect for the traditions and institutions of “our remarkable country.” 

Klein assumes that since the United States is the world’s leading economy and the world’s most powerful military force, it is obvious that whoever is elected president will have major influence on the global economy. 

But maybe Klein and those who agree with him are simply nostalgic for a time that began with the end of World War Two, when world events revolved around actions and decisions of the United States. 

The world stage has shifted.

Klein’s assumption is that the U.S. election is THE major political event before 5 November. But the idea of U.S. centrality is no longer universal.

Consider the October 22–24 meeting of the countries known as BRICS+ in Kazan, Russia.

Made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and others, BRICS+ is a geopolitical bloc that formed back in 2009 as a counter to the G7 — the group of democratic nations that are the world’s most advanced economies and that includes the United States.

Some 32 countries are expected to attend the summit. Of those more than half are expected to send their leaders. Representatives from a number of international organisations are also expected to attend including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Union State of Russia and Belarus and the New Development Bank.

The BRICS+ countries represent about two-thirds of the world’s population or more than five billion people. According to the International Monetary Fund, the bloc last year collectively accounted for just under one-third of the global gross domestic product — the value of all goods produced — about double what it was in 1995. It is now more than that of the combined economies of the G7.

The meeting reminds us that non-Western institutions are developing outside traditional Washington domination. 

Election obsessions

The Kazan summit will be overshadowed by the U.S. election in the Western press.

In Switzerland, where I live, events surrounding the election for the U.S. presidency and Congress regularly flash across news pages, connecting the outcome to the future of important Swiss industries like pharmaceuticals and luxury goods and on a more global scale to Ukraine, Gaza, China, international law, multilateralism and the United Nations. 

For Switzerland, a landlocked country with no natural resources, the obsession with the U.S. election makes sense. The United States is Switzerland’s second-largest trading partner. According to data from the Swiss government, Switzerland imported goods worth more than $34 billion from the United States, while its exports amounted to about twice that. 

Swiss/U.S. relations also have historical origins. The so-called Sister Republics have been close since Swiss-born Albert Gallatin crossed the Atlantic in 1780, two decades before he would found New York University and become U.S. Treasury Secretary. The 1815 Swiss Constitution is an adaptation of the U.S. Constitution. 

But outside of Switzerland and the rest of the so-called western world, the U.S. election is not so crucial.

A shifting of political alliances

This is not 1945. The United States is no longer the dominating global power it once was. Although still a predominant power, the United States has considerable competition militarily, economically, politically and even morally. 

Even Donald Trump recognizes that. Trump’s campaign theme Make America Great Again implies that the U.S. is not as great as it once was.

There is no denying that there is global fascination with the U.S. electoral process. No other country puts on a similar show. Local Swiss television regularly shows Swiss journalists interviewing Trump backers in the United States like evolutionary biologists studying a newly discovered subspecies of homo sapiens.

While watching political convention delegates wearing silly hats stand up and raucously cheer like fans at a sporting event may be entertaining, it lacks gravitas. U.S. presidential debates are high theatre, when candidates argue about eating pets, they display a lack of seriousness. 

The fact that Hollywood has taken over how the United States chooses its leaders — note Harris’s recent media tour — reflects a general lack of moral authority and relevance. (The latest New York Times/Siena College poll shows respondents think Kamala Harris the more “fun” candidate.) 

The United States and the world

For those in the United States, the election is important. The outcome will affect people’s day-to-day lives there in all kinds of ways. But not so much for people outside the United States. 

For all the touting of the U.S. president as the leader of the free world, the Biden administration’s continued “ironclad” support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressions in Gaza and Lebanon further diminishes the traditional U.S. leadership position at the U.N. if not globally. Biden just cancelled his visit to Angola; he has not visited Africa during his presidency, a continent with approximately one-fifth of the world’s population.

The myth that a U.S. president could make the world safe for democracy is long past. If Trump wins the election, a number of legal indictments and at least one conviction will follow him into office. 

If he loses, it is expected that he won’t recognize the results. That further diminishes whatever image remains of the United States as the exemplary democracy. Also slipping away is the narrative of the United States as the “indispensable nation,” a title coined by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 1998. 

The upcoming election should be placed in its proper global perspective. It is important, but not as important as many Americans think and the Western press leads us to believe.

A version of this article has appeared in CounterPunch.

Questions to consider:

1. How is the status of the United States different now than it was after World War Two?
2. What is the BRICS+ and why is it significant?
3. Do you think the world would be better off if no countries were considered super powers? Why?

Daniel Warner earned a PhD in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, where he was Deputy to the Director for many years as well as founder and director of several programs focusing on international organizations. He has lectured and taught internationally and is a frequent contributor to international media. He has served as an advisor to the UNHCR, ILO and NATO, and has been a consultant to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Switzerland as well as in the private sector.