On election day, 2016, I woke up every two hours as America’s votes were counted. Not on purpose, and with very little hope. After the referendum, I was grim in my expectations.

I didn’t cry. But the foreboding feeling that would stay with me for the next four years began.

You see, America is our bellwether. We watch them do the most bizarre things and think huh, America. Then, we start to see ‘Pregnancy Crisis Centres’ popping up across the UK (spoiler: these are undercover outposts of religious organisations against abortion) and hear the beliefs of certain UK politicians, like Jacob Rees-Mogg.

And we realise, if we’re not too blinkered, that it can happen to us. Because the people in charge have common interests and goals: to make money, maintain power, suppress change and stifle the voices of those who do not look like them.

We have no real measure of the power at play, quietly, behind the scenes. I’m not an Illuminati guy, but the very, VERY rich don’t shout about it. They exist – with many layers of power beneath them to ensure they continue to do so – in the dark.

When the bad things happen in America, I imagine they are largely approved (and, most likely, funded) by these behind-the-scenes people. Progress is the enemy of long-standing institutions of patriarchal power. Why wouldn’t they want to maintain their generational positions by preventing change?

Money can achieve the unbelievable. So, the unbelievable can happen anywhere.

That’s why US politics keep me awake.

The bellwether is sounding.