Absentee Voting

I voted on Wednesday, October 8, at the US Embassy here in Buenos Aires. The Embassy offered a three hour window of one day to come and vote like a normal citizen, not a person living abroad who usually has to mail in his/her absentee ballot. I was astonished at the mass of people there! It was a decently organized event with snacks and red, white, and blue bunting, but I don’t think the organizers were expecting THIS many people to show up. I smiled looking around the long line that formed outside the heavily guarded gates: old folks, young students just like me, and other good ol’ Americans waiting to cast their votes.

I will make no political statements in this post, but the conversations I overheard revealed a clear favorite: Barack Obama. I wonder if this choice is characteristic of the college students that made up the majority of attendees that day or of the type of person that would willingly choose to move outside the US for a time. It is natural for a young college student to agree whole-heartedly with the tenets of the Democratic party: helping the middle and lower classes, redistribution of income, social liberalism, etc. But I’m also inclined to believe that anyone who would want to move outside the US can learn to assimilate into and empathize with the culture of another country. Having done so, this person might base his/her vote for president on a sort of “bird’s eye view” of the country, an outsider looking in. And what would an outsider want come January? I’m not sure, but after talking to Argentines, I gather that an outsider would want a fresh start after George W. Bush. Foreigners I’ve spoken to all say that they are tired of Bush for the mess he appears to have made in the Middle East, and his lack of intellectual poise as a head of state. A fresh start means a complete change in office; change the man and his party altogether. Obama seems like a breath of fresh air to many non-Americans. Could it be that American citizens living abroad have aligned themselves with this same sentiment?