It is understandable that people around the world obsess about US elections given the cultural and political impact the country has on the rest of us.

Some of them even try to support one or other candidate in presidential elections as US election law allows foreigners to do just about anything, as long as it’s routine volunteer work.

Vladimir Putin probably didn’t need to think about this when he helped get Donald Trump elected and if it was done at arms length it might even have been legal.

But what about Australian and Australians’ response to the US election? At times our responses make us look more like a US dependency or protectorate rather than an ally – foolish as even the latter concept may be.

Emblematic of this over decades are the attitudes of the political class (staffers, politicians and press gallery) towards political........

© Pearls and Irritations