Nursultan Nazarbayev won reelection in Kazakhstan on Sunday with a crazy 97 percent of the vote. Elections where strongmen win with such a big plurality aren’t particularly democratic ones. The Western media has been using the elections as an opportunity to point out all of the flaws in the Kazakh system.  But maybe the Western media coverage is about as culturally arrogant about the Central Asian nation as the film “Borat” was.  What if there are elements — not every element, mind you, but some — to Kazakh elections that are far superior to U.S. practices, and that we might be able to take a lesson from?

We act superior to countries where leaders are reelected with 97 percent. But to them we don’t look much different