Turns out, some people can vote for candidate A and get candidate B either way.

Especially considering that US electoral system works in a way that even if the majority of the population chooses candidate A, candidate B can still win the election.

Iirc, this is exactly what happened to Trump, at least on his first term. Most votes were for Clinton, but Trump won anyway.

Your position could be understandable back in the day when it was mostly Russia and China who acted like that, and so it could be easy to feel superior by ignoring the objective factors getting into the equation. Nowadays, it spreads, and remaining ignorant about it will likely bite you in the not-so-distant future.

"you guys... got what you wanted"

crazy how an election system designed by people who never want to leave power could get me a leadership neither I nor anyone I care about voted for.

We hopefully will never "own" or occupy neighboring countries, but it doesn't change how massive our country is.