Let's Get Political

Turn on the radio or go to a club in England, and you will hear:

“I might be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it”

“I throw my hands up in the air sometimes”

“Want your bad romance”

Walk down the street in England, and you will see:

Paul on a bus stop

True Grit on the side of a bus

Black Swan on a billboard

Turn on the television in England, and you will see:

Monica and Ross acting awkward on Friends

DJ and Turk bromancing on Scrubs

The Magic Kingdom advertising travel deals for Disney World

Ask international students how they learned English and many will respond, “From watching American television.”

If you are hungry, walk down the street and take your pick of McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, or Subway.

When you leave America, you are not leaving its influence. You are simply stepping over the threshold of where America’s influence begins.

October last semester, a Swedish student asked me who I was voting for in the Congressional elections. November last semester, an Australian student asked me how I felt about the results of the Congressional elections but told me his opinion before I could open my mouth. A month ago, an English friend asked me if I was a Democrat, Republican, or part of the Tea Party and proceeded to tell me his opinions on each. Two weeks ago, an English friend asked me about my opinion on the 2012 presidential candidates and told me the horrible implications if Sarah Palin were elected.

I opened the University of Birmingham student newspaper last semester and read about the US Congressional elections. I read about Obama, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Fox News, and Guantanamo Bay. I read Laura Hewitt write, responding to Obama’s children’s book Of Thee I Sing, “however inclusive Obama tries to be, his writing is still grounded in American exceptionalism.” This semester I read Oliver MacArthur write, concerning Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting, “If knowledge is power, the lack of regulation surrounding the American media allows political interests to influence news reporting.” And my favorite from last semester, Charlie Bailey wrote that Justin Beiber winning four American Music Awards lends “credence to the theory that our cousins across the pond may be being dropped on their heads at birth en masse.”

How many American university students

1.) Can name another country’s political parties?

2.) Knows the political planks of those parties?

3.) Has an opinion about those parties?

4.) Would even know if another nation’s leader published a children’s book and would then analyze the political implications of said book?

The fact is that America’s influence permeates the globe from entertainment to business to politics. And the world is watching, actively, with strong, informed opinions. Rightly so, because when America moves, the world shifts, and people are not tossed around quietly. We as American citizens have to know that our actions do not stop at our borders. When we cast our votes, be that with our ballot or with our dollar, we are casting a vote with reverberations that spread until they envelope the globe. We have a responsibility to be aware of this fact, especially when it comes to electing our political leaders. We as American citizens do not just vote for ourselves. Casting our ballots or refusing to cast a ballot decides the fates of real people who might never step foot on American soil but will nevertheless be affected by the decisions made on this soil.

We as American citizens must be aware that when we vote for our Congressional leaders, we vote for future laws that affect the politics of other countries. When we vote for our president, we vote for a person who can declare war, killing people in a country we cannot even point out on a map. When we are not economically responsible, we sink, bringing the world’s economy down with us, spreading economic insecurity and unemployment, meaning people in other countries cannot afford school, rent, or food.

Who knows how long we, how long the United States, will remain in this consequential position, especially with countries like China and India on the economic rise. But for today and for the immediate tomorrow, we as Americans hold a responsibility to the world, a responsibility which we need to be very aware and which I did not even know existed until I went out into that world.

As the 2012 Presidential election approaches, let us as Americans bear this responsibility gracefully, looking beyond our borders, knowing that the lives of people who we will never meet, never share a culture, a history, or a drink with is in a very real way tied to our action.