Who would you vote for in the 2021 Scottish Parliament Election?

[LabourJersey]

I genuinely don't understand why so many American centre-left posters support Scottish independence.

Scottish independence represents the kind of stupid nationalism that you all (rightly) profess to hate.  It isn't based on anything concrete because Scots* aren't really any different to English or Welsh.  It would be like me supporting independence for Minnesota.  Scotland isn't some kind of oppressed colony - it is actually over represented in Westminster and has its own self government that has a lot of power.  Not only that but its weaker economy benefits from the stronger English economy.

* Who is a Scotsman?  I was born and brought up in Wales but Ancestry says I am 75% Scottish (Shetland) and my surname is strongly linked with Gloucestershire, where I now live.

I understand that you may not like Brexit and that that might be your reasoning.  But Brexit isn't actually going to change very much for ordinary people.  The only difference is maybe having to pay slightly extra for some products from the EU.  And really if you think leaving a 60-year union with the EU was tricky how much harder would leaving a 400-year union be?

Furthermore independence would just make one of America's strongest allies a lot weaker both economically and geopolitically.  It's no surprise that Russian and Chinese state media support independence.

A lot of it's because Scotland is more left-wing than the rest of the UK and some people sympathize with them having a federal government run by Conservatives more often than not, almost none of whom coming from Scotland.

Also there's many left-wing Americans who view alliance with the EU as much more important these days than the UK, and the belief among them is that an independent Scotland would join the EU quickly and be a productive addition to the Union. And plenty of center-left Americans don't have love for the UK government and English in particular, and sympathize with people who want independence from London as we did and many others did as well.

I actually think there'd be a ton of barriers for Scotland to enter into the EU if they won independence, and I don't see how an independent Scotland outside of the EU would really benefit Scots. For that reason I lean No in terms of independence but I definitely understand the supporter's arguments.

[LabourJersey]

I think enough of the left-wing posters on this forum could rise above it, but there's also a heuristic association between Scottish unionism/the UK and Boris Johnson, Brexit and Trump which the SNP oppose. It makes sense that independence from a country led by Boris Johnson outside the EU would be a liberal cause. There were very few prominent right-wing arguments or political voices in favour of independence during the referendum and within Scotland, so it follows that Scottish Independence might be seen in the media as primarily a left of centre cause (which it was/is in the eyes of quite a few Scots), though the social justice element to that stems much more strongly from Scotland's economic position within the UK, which the pro-independence side claim is down to 'being ruled by Westminster.'

Yeah this is a better expression of what I meant. Americans don't think of Scottish independent as a truly nationalist thing because there's not really any right-wingers who are prominently in favor of it