h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've got a belter of a candidate to vote for, too.

It's very rare to have a candidate who is

Politically sound
Has a very good chance of being elected
Is effective when he *is* elected
And is a decent human being, too.

*and* supported us when we were on strike. I've said it before - people remember things like that.

We voted really early, as we were escaping the sounds of yet more floor sanding... I just v voted for the ones with the silliest names basically... probably not the most sound way to make informed choice or rational descisions, but I'm not very well informed or rational anymore, so it seemed sensible from that point of view, at least I imainge the good sun shiney weather today may have actually managed to get a slighter betterer than useually turn out for the elctions

No matter who you're voting for, it's not going to look sillier than our ballots this year, apparently.

Imagine Hillary Clinton being regarded unfavorably by more than half of the electorate, but being much better liked than her Republican opponent...

absolutely... i fear our elections here for local councils are but nothing in comparason to their, over the pond we had a disussion about trump with a very drunk guy in the pub last night... it made only slightly more sense than the man himself

Only about 28% of the American people have a favorable impression of the Republican Party [compared with 46% for the Democrats], but somehow the media treaty Trump's statements as if they amounted to something.

He does seem to say the darnest odd things though, from waht snippets I've heard through the media here at least Mind, igven the often found habit of people doing the opposite to what they say, when in office.... who can say

Now would this be a good example of the concept of cultural hegemony? Or something.

When a post about voting, which makes no reference to places or persons, becomes a discussion about who will be president of one country in North America?

Why not India? It is the world's biggest democracy, after all, and has a lot more fluent English speakers than there are in the Americas.

Is India having a national election this year? I wonder who else is.

I don't know - that's a good question. I know everything about the candidates in a much smaller country than India - and one which is an empire in decline - than I do about India.

If India is the world's largest democracy, then the U.S. is the second biggest. I'm not sure what the third one is. Indonesia and Brazil have large populations, but I'm not sure what type of governments they have.

I think it's natural and responsible to study up on your own country first - after all, that's the one where your vote matters.

But I was curious, because I happened to be reading yesterday about how young people in South Asia view European history culturally, and an Indian commentator challenged his European readers to name an Indian political leader not named Gandhi or Nehru. Good point.

Amazingly, That Other Website has a list of regularly scheduled elections, so here's who's having them in 2016. Or had them already, as Uganda did - although the dust hasn't settled there:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36212266

That's got me worried - I happen to know a couple who live there, and they have two adorable little children who sit behind me in church when they're in this country (and kick the seat and keep me awake), and I do not want to hear that they've got trouble.

Here's the list I drug out from that website's tables. If I missed any, let me know:

Dominican Republic
Ghana
Hong Kong
Iran
Lesotho
Nauru (Pacific Island nation)
Nicaragua
Peru
Philippines
Puerto Rico
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
Uganda
United States
Zambia