Let’s be honest, the US was no shining beacon of democracy even before Trump. The system was rotten and everyone knew it. However, those with the power to change it have no incentive to do so. It was basically held up because the poeple in charge had some common decency. At that point it’s just a matter of time before someone came along that didn’t have this basic decency.

I think the people of the UK should take a long, hard look at how the situation has evolved in the US and decide if they want to change their system to avoid having only two parties dominate the political climate. Ironically, being a monarchy means they are probably more resistant to going down the same route, but I suspect the parties are going to get more radical as time goes on and the royals aren’t terribly popular these days.

(Opinion to be taken with a pinch of salt. I am no expert in these things and don’t live in either country; We’ve got our own radicalization and issues with our own democracy.)

Lutheran practice, mainly. (Wikipedia link) Honestly never occurred to me that there are places where this isn’t normal (though the candles aren’t usually in wreaths here, just in regular candle sticks with four candles).

I assumed op meant exclusive access in the sense of “this is mine, and nobody else is allowed to use it”.

Over here in Norway it seems like Fairytale of New York is played on the radio almost every day of December and surprisingly often otherwise.