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| How do Americans in the UK feel about the US elections? | How do Americans in the UK feel about the US elections? |
| (2 days later) | |
| What is it like for Americans to watch the US election from Britain? Two US citizens, comedian Rich Fulcher and literature professor Sarah Churchwell, discuss media coverage, distance – and how to explain to Brits why the Republicans are a serious threat. Emine Saner listens in. | What is it like for Americans to watch the US election from Britain? Two US citizens, comedian Rich Fulcher and literature professor Sarah Churchwell, discuss media coverage, distance – and how to explain to Brits why the Republicans are a serious threat. Emine Saner listens in. |
| Rich Fulcher: Over here, I still see how pro-Obama everyone is. Some seem incredulous that it's even a close race. | Rich Fulcher: Over here, I still see how pro-Obama everyone is. Some seem incredulous that it's even a close race. |
| Sarah Churchwell: There's a presumption that Americans are uninformed yahoos. The suspicion is that if they don't like Obama, it's because they're yahoos, not because they have arrived at that decision for rational reasons. | Sarah Churchwell: There's a presumption that Americans are uninformed yahoos. The suspicion is that if they don't like Obama, it's because they're yahoos, not because they have arrived at that decision for rational reasons. |
| RF: Or they're from the south, or carry guns. | RF: Or they're from the south, or carry guns. |
| SC: Or they're evangelicals. Also, there doesn't seem to be any notion that you can object to Obama from the left – he's extended Bush's foreign policy, not shut Guantánamo, aggravated civil liberties – there are many ways one could object to him, and it doesn't make one Sarah Palin. | SC: Or they're evangelicals. Also, there doesn't seem to be any notion that you can object to Obama from the left – he's extended Bush's foreign policy, not shut Guantánamo, aggravated civil liberties – there are many ways one could object to him, and it doesn't make one Sarah Palin. |
| RF: Ultimately it boils down to whether you want Romney or Obama, despite Guantánamo. It's the lesser of two evils. Also, people here don't understand the electoral college. But who does? People here think swing states are where they have those parties with the car keys. | RF: Ultimately it boils down to whether you want Romney or Obama, despite Guantánamo. It's the lesser of two evils. Also, people here don't understand the electoral college. But who does? People here think swing states are where they have those parties with the car keys. |
| SC: There is this idea that the electoral divide is coastal, and it's east and west coast versus the heartland, and it's not. I think it's rural versus urban, and that's what people outside America don't understand. Obama's decision to bail out the auto industry has affected the midwest and bought him a lot of votes that were otherwise going to be dubious. | SC: There is this idea that the electoral divide is coastal, and it's east and west coast versus the heartland, and it's not. I think it's rural versus urban, and that's what people outside America don't understand. Obama's decision to bail out the auto industry has affected the midwest and bought him a lot of votes that were otherwise going to be dubious. |
| RF: And now Romney is claiming he has the same plan. He's like a little kid: "No, that was my plan too!" | RF: And now Romney is claiming he has the same plan. He's like a little kid: "No, that was my plan too!" |
| SC: I'm pretty sure he wrote an editorial that said to let them go bankrupt, that this is the moral hazard of capitalism. | SC: I'm pretty sure he wrote an editorial that said to let them go bankrupt, that this is the moral hazard of capitalism. |
| Emine Saner: Do you think Europeans are bewildered by the popularity of the Republican party? I couldn't imagine them existing here in any serious way. | Emine Saner: Do you think Europeans are bewildered by the popularity of the Republican party? I couldn't imagine them existing here in any serious way. |
| RF: David Cameron couldn't exist in the Republican party, he's much too liberal. | RF: David Cameron couldn't exist in the Republican party, he's much too liberal. |
| SC: Nobody really knows what Romney thinks, but his record in Massachusetts is pretty moderate. He takes a lot of credit he doesn't deserve by saying he worked across the aisle with Democrats – but that's because 87% of his senate was Democrat, so he didn't really have a choice. It's hard to say what he would do if he were operating in a vacuum. The way the Republican party is currently working is by mobilising their base, which seems to me to be bonkers, because the birthers are never going to vote for Obama. Romney does not have to pander to them, he has to win the centre. I think it's a little unfair of Europeans who say it wouldn't happen here or in Europe – Le Pen exists in France, the Golden Dawn exists in Greece. In America, they have a slightly different face, but the story is the same: anti-immigrant, ideologically extreme, religiously or politically. | SC: Nobody really knows what Romney thinks, but his record in Massachusetts is pretty moderate. He takes a lot of credit he doesn't deserve by saying he worked across the aisle with Democrats – but that's because 87% of his senate was Democrat, so he didn't really have a choice. It's hard to say what he would do if he were operating in a vacuum. The way the Republican party is currently working is by mobilising their base, which seems to me to be bonkers, because the birthers are never going to vote for Obama. Romney does not have to pander to them, he has to win the centre. I think it's a little unfair of Europeans who say it wouldn't happen here or in Europe – Le Pen exists in France, the Golden Dawn exists in Greece. In America, they have a slightly different face, but the story is the same: anti-immigrant, ideologically extreme, religiously or politically. |
| RF: In the Republican primaries you ask the question, "How many of you believe in Darwinism?" and nobody raises their hands. Romney may be moderate but he's carrying with him a bandwagon of birthers and extremists. Look at the way he stood up for [Republican Richard] Mourdock, who said it was God's will if you have a baby after being raped. | RF: In the Republican primaries you ask the question, "How many of you believe in Darwinism?" and nobody raises their hands. Romney may be moderate but he's carrying with him a bandwagon of birthers and extremists. Look at the way he stood up for [Republican Richard] Mourdock, who said it was God's will if you have a baby after being raped. |
| SC: So many people do not love Obama any more. Republican strategists seem not to understand that to swing that far right they're alienating people who would be willing to vote against Obama. People say to me here: "It seems clear from Obama's many failures that one person's power to change the country is limited, so how much does it matter?" It matters a lot, not least because of the supreme court, which is going to have between one and four vacancies in the next election cycle, and certainly within the next eight years. Some of the decisions they have made have not just been unconscionable to liberals, but have been historically unprecedented – absolutely out of the bounds of what the constitution gave them the powers to do. The consequences of having Romney in power, who will need to appease his Republican base by appointing a conservative court, is terrifying, because that's not just eight years, that's a generation. | SC: So many people do not love Obama any more. Republican strategists seem not to understand that to swing that far right they're alienating people who would be willing to vote against Obama. People say to me here: "It seems clear from Obama's many failures that one person's power to change the country is limited, so how much does it matter?" It matters a lot, not least because of the supreme court, which is going to have between one and four vacancies in the next election cycle, and certainly within the next eight years. Some of the decisions they have made have not just been unconscionable to liberals, but have been historically unprecedented – absolutely out of the bounds of what the constitution gave them the powers to do. The consequences of having Romney in power, who will need to appease his Republican base by appointing a conservative court, is terrifying, because that's not just eight years, that's a generation. |
| RF: It's a great job, by the way. You get to sit down all the time. | RF: It's a great job, by the way. You get to sit down all the time. |
| SC: Really cool robes. To go back to the point about how the British view it, I have had more than one person say to me that it's entertainment, or theatre, which you feel sort of immune to. | SC: Really cool robes. To go back to the point about how the British view it, I have had more than one person say to me that it's entertainment, or theatre, which you feel sort of immune to. |
| RF: We look at politics now like sports – it's like, "This guy got benched." | RF: We look at politics now like sports – it's like, "This guy got benched." |
| SC: I love entertainment, but the difference between something that has real consequences and something that doesn't is genuine. There are polls showing we haven't been as polarised as this since the civil war, and you know who I blame? Rupert Murdoch. In 1987, Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine, and in 1988 Murdoch started Fox News, and it was made legal because they no longer had to have balanced viewpoints. In the UK, that rule you still have here about balance. Some people might think is a bit tedious, I would say: "Get rid of it and then you get Fox News." | SC: I love entertainment, but the difference between something that has real consequences and something that doesn't is genuine. There are polls showing we haven't been as polarised as this since the civil war, and you know who I blame? Rupert Murdoch. In 1987, Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine, and in 1988 Murdoch started Fox News, and it was made legal because they no longer had to have balanced viewpoints. In the UK, that rule you still have here about balance. Some people might think is a bit tedious, I would say: "Get rid of it and then you get Fox News." |
| RF: My parents are sucked into the Fox News bubble and they will never leave it. They're trying to get out, and I try to open the door for them, but it doesn't work. It's a right-wing prism. In the second presidential debate, Obama did very well – but not to them. | RF: My parents are sucked into the Fox News bubble and they will never leave it. They're trying to get out, and I try to open the door for them, but it doesn't work. It's a right-wing prism. In the second presidential debate, Obama did very well – but not to them. |
| SC: What's hard to explain is why it feels like a civil war sometimes. I cannot talk about politics with one of my best friends because she is that kind of kneejerk Republican, and she thinks I'm a kneejerk liberal. I keep saying I would vote Republican if there were a Republican who was going to be good for the country, be moderate, protect reproductive rights. I'm socially liberal, but fiscally conservative, and that's not an unusual thing to find in America. | SC: What's hard to explain is why it feels like a civil war sometimes. I cannot talk about politics with one of my best friends because she is that kind of kneejerk Republican, and she thinks I'm a kneejerk liberal. I keep saying I would vote Republican if there were a Republican who was going to be good for the country, be moderate, protect reproductive rights. I'm socially liberal, but fiscally conservative, and that's not an unusual thing to find in America. |
| ES: Does the US election make you homesick? | ES: Does the US election make you homesick? |
| SC: Homesickness comes up with Halloween and Christmas. I don't want to watch [the election] there; I think I would be more disheartened than I am. | SC: Homesickness comes up with Halloween and Christmas. I don't want to watch [the election] there; I think I would be more disheartened than I am. |
| ES: You've both lived here for several years. Do you feel people have been warmer to you as Americans during Obama's presidency? Can you imagine that changing? | ES: You've both lived here for several years. Do you feel people have been warmer to you as Americans during Obama's presidency? Can you imagine that changing? |
| SC: I've certainly encountered a lot less anti-Americanism than when Bush was in power. Not long after they invaded Iraq, I was in a bar with a friend and some guy kept pushing into us. I turned and politely asked him to give us some space and he said: "Why don't you fuck off back to America?" | SC: I've certainly encountered a lot less anti-Americanism than when Bush was in power. Not long after they invaded Iraq, I was in a bar with a friend and some guy kept pushing into us. I turned and politely asked him to give us some space and he said: "Why don't you fuck off back to America?" |
| RF: When Bush was president, I was "Canadian". It solved a lot of problems. If Romney wins I'm going to have to be Antarctican. | RF: When Bush was president, I was "Canadian". It solved a lot of problems. If Romney wins I'm going to have to be Antarctican. |
| Rich Fulcher's Special US Election Show featuring Scott Capurro and Hadley Freeman is at Soho theatre, London W1, on 5 November at 7.30pm. | Rich Fulcher's Special US Election Show featuring Scott Capurro and Hadley Freeman is at Soho theatre, London W1, on 5 November at 7.30pm. |
| • This article was amended on 4 November 2012 to correct the spelling of Sarah Churchwell's name in the picture caption. |