By oncptime
Hello. My name’s Charles. I’m a 22 year-old journalism student from Washington, D.C., and I am a not-so-recovering political junkie. Like so many other wonks, I got hooked on the stuff after getting a taste of the pure political electricity that was the 2008 election. Just a single week shy of actually being able to vote, I did everything I could to feel connected…which pretty much meant consuming inordinate amounts of news coverage and producing a mini-documentary about the inauguration.
I’ve since become that guy who relishes in political sparring with friends, family, and complete strangers. “What do you mean you aren’t voting? Let me tell you why abstaining is NOT an option.”
Being abroad meant that I wouldn’t be in country to re-elect my President this time around, and while that prospect initially cast a bit of gloom over my time in Italy, I’ve come to recognize it as something of an opportunity. You see in the same way that many Americans abhor the thought of talking political shop in mixed company, Europeans seem not to be able to get enough of it.
Back in the States, we live in a mediated society that trafficks in a fantasy of American centrality. We like to think that the rest of the world is constantly preoccupied with what’s going on in the U.S. the same the way that we are. To be fair, the European media does devote a sizable amount of its attention to us, but we’re far from being at the center of their universe.
Every four years, though, our fantasy becomes a little more real. American elections are important globally because of the impact they can have the U.S.’s international relationships. In an election year in which the candidates’ stances on foreign policy are so central to voter’s decisions, it’s fascinating to actually hear the perspectives of the foreign people the policies would affect.
Being a media consumer in the U.S. during election season is like being in the eye of a storm. You’re surrounded on all sides by an onslaught of talking heads, pundits, and surrogates, all pushing various agendas and putting various spins on the same handful of soundbytes captures from the campaigns. Here in Italy, and from what I gathered from my time in Spain, the focus is vastly different. It’s all foreign policy. Nothing else matters.
The things that I’ve heard about the election this year have all been variations of the same basic ideas: “This Romney has no experience at all as an international representative. How can Americans even consider him if he won’t tell you how he sees the rest of the world?"
I’m a shout-it-out loud screaming liberal by default, and I’ve nodded along in wonderment with the various Italians who’ve expressed their perplexity at just how American conservatives could even consider voting Red. The people I’ve spoken with, though, they aren’t like me. Or you.
They’re detached. They’re viewing the spectacle that is our election cycle from afar with an objectivity that is definitively non-American. They are single-issue voters without a vote, and they’ve made their decision based almost entirely on the coverage of a media unconcerned with drawing massive audiences with their coverage. Watching them, and their news, and listening to their perspectives on American politics has given me pause. As an American, it’s so easy to get sucked into the religious fervor of the Church of the State and take on positions that aren’t necessarily yours.
Being removed from the media machine proper hasn’t made me any less the single-payer believer I was before. It has, however, bolstered my faith in the human capacity to reason through decisions. That, and that my vote for Barack was definitely the right decision.