M. Gessen

Do they even care?

Australia is by no means as dynamic or as powerful or rich a country as the United States, but we do elections better in this country.

We have an independent electoral commission.

We have the vote on a Saturday.

There's compulsory voting, because voting is seen as, not just as a privilege, but as a duty, a civic duty.

The polling places are kind of like little mini festivals of democracy that go on.

There are kids pinging around all over the place.

You know, we have what we call a democracy sausage, where...

Money's being raised for the local scout group or what have you, or a local music group or something.

And is there sausage?

Yeah, there's a sausage.

There's a sausage.

Yeah, there's a sausage, yeah.

On bread, it's kind of like a really lame and very, very greasy hot dog, but it's surprisingly delicious.

So we do this very well.

Last time I was in the United States, I'm talking to American friends and they're bemoaning the state of American elections, and I say, well, this is how we do it in Australia.

Maybe I'm a very boring person, it's very possible, but I can just see them sort of, you know, their minds wandering.

They're just really not that curious.

Americans really do believe they have the gold standard of democracy and can't be done better elsewhere, don't they?

It's kind of... It's like the democracy drought then, isn't it, rather than...