Election 2012: A New Perspective
I'm not a very political person, and quite frankly, I hope to never become one. Of course, there have been more surprising turn-arounds in in a person's life, so I won't say I'm out of the clear just yet. In fact, I found this year that I shifted from an uninterested citizen to a disinterested citizen, which I suppose is a move in the direction of being "interested."
Despite my intent to remain uninvolved in the elections this year, it was impossible. In fact, I found it quite interesting to watch the election from a totally different place than I've watched the last 7 elections (which is as many as I can distinctly remember). I've spent my whole life in the Catholic Conservative South Eastern US Section of the arena. And this year, I watched it from the Democratic Asian-American Section. In addition, the majority of teachers at my school are Democrats, even though they're not Asian-American. As you can imagine, it looked like a whole different ballgame from these seats.
I saw issues I never really considered before. Like the fact that the international community (not just Asians) are huge Obama fans. I've yet to meet one person who thought Romney would represent the United States favorably to the rest of the world. I also realized that the rest of the world is both enamored with and baffled by American politics. Of course, most of them know more about it than I do, and I still don't quite understand why. (Not why they know more than me - everyone knows more than me - but why they're so obsessed with it.) The world is watching our process very carefully, and quite frankly, I'm embarrassed about that this time around. We are so clearly a partisan country now, it feels more British Parliament than American Congress to me, but that's probably my own stereotypes coming into play. What I mean is, people look ugly when they talk politics. Do you think they realize that? And I'm not talking about the candidates. I actually think politics brings out the best in both men, which is clearly why they were the 2 best candidates for the job. But politics brings out the worst in a lot of people, and that's what's embarrassing to me. America looked really ugly to the rest of the world, and that might not be important to most people, but as an American living overseas, it's important to me. I want other democratic nations to look at our country as noble, honorable. I want to continue to be the model for an ideal democracy, but it just didn't look that way from here.
But on the flip side, I am also proud of how invested Americans are in their country. I like that there were so many swing states this year, and I was excited to read that the state of Georgia is predicted to be a swing state by the year 2020. I like it when people are open to finding the best candidate for their country at that moment in time, regardless of party platforms.
For now, I'm glad I live overseas...and not at all for the reasons that everyone else is ridiculously posting on FB and Twitter. I didn't move overseas because I wanted to leave the US; I left the US because I wanted to move overseas. And there's a big difference. This might sound silly, but I like the fact that everywhere I go, I'm representing America. I take that job very seriously. I think everyone has a duty to their country, and I think there are equally important, productive, and positive ways to contribute to and show pride in your country besides choosing a side and voting. But who knows, maybe by 2020 I'll be interested enough to get out of the stands and hit the playing field.
Despite my intent to remain uninvolved in the elections this year, it was impossible. In fact, I found it quite interesting to watch the election from a totally different place than I've watched the last 7 elections (which is as many as I can distinctly remember). I've spent my whole life in the Catholic Conservative South Eastern US Section of the arena. And this year, I watched it from the Democratic Asian-American Section. In addition, the majority of teachers at my school are Democrats, even though they're not Asian-American. As you can imagine, it looked like a whole different ballgame from these seats.
I saw issues I never really considered before. Like the fact that the international community (not just Asians) are huge Obama fans. I've yet to meet one person who thought Romney would represent the United States favorably to the rest of the world. I also realized that the rest of the world is both enamored with and baffled by American politics. Of course, most of them know more about it than I do, and I still don't quite understand why. (Not why they know more than me - everyone knows more than me - but why they're so obsessed with it.) The world is watching our process very carefully, and quite frankly, I'm embarrassed about that this time around. We are so clearly a partisan country now, it feels more British Parliament than American Congress to me, but that's probably my own stereotypes coming into play. What I mean is, people look ugly when they talk politics. Do you think they realize that? And I'm not talking about the candidates. I actually think politics brings out the best in both men, which is clearly why they were the 2 best candidates for the job. But politics brings out the worst in a lot of people, and that's what's embarrassing to me. America looked really ugly to the rest of the world, and that might not be important to most people, but as an American living overseas, it's important to me. I want other democratic nations to look at our country as noble, honorable. I want to continue to be the model for an ideal democracy, but it just didn't look that way from here.
But on the flip side, I am also proud of how invested Americans are in their country. I like that there were so many swing states this year, and I was excited to read that the state of Georgia is predicted to be a swing state by the year 2020. I like it when people are open to finding the best candidate for their country at that moment in time, regardless of party platforms.
For now, I'm glad I live overseas...and not at all for the reasons that everyone else is ridiculously posting on FB and Twitter. I didn't move overseas because I wanted to leave the US; I left the US because I wanted to move overseas. And there's a big difference. This might sound silly, but I like the fact that everywhere I go, I'm representing America. I take that job very seriously. I think everyone has a duty to their country, and I think there are equally important, productive, and positive ways to contribute to and show pride in your country besides choosing a side and voting. But who knows, maybe by 2020 I'll be interested enough to get out of the stands and hit the playing field.
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