When I declared a Government major late in my sophomore year, I had only completed one class in the department and was in the middle of another. In attempt to catch up with the four introductory-level major requisites, I decided to take U.S. Political Systems and Comparative Political Systems in the same semester. This was a terrible idea.
Deciding to load up on intro-level Government classes this Fall was probably one of the worst decisions I could have made—more than half of class time each week is dedicated to discussing the upcoming elections, and being in two of these classes at once means at least two hours of my week are spent discussing events that have little relevance to me.
As soon as I decided to attend Georgetown, I knew I would be in D.C. for the 2012 elections, but never did I think it would make my life so inherently awkward. At first, I thought it would be exciting to have the campaigns going on while I was living in the U.S. capital and to have all of campus debating ‘the issues,’ but now I realize that being an international student on campus during the election is a very different experience than one might expect.
When one doesn’t have the right to vote, the discussions that take place surrounding the election take on a different meaning. I don’t feel like I have the right to argue with others about the merits of one candidate or another, because I won’t be voting in the election. But in the end, the choice for U.S. president will have a profound effect on the political and economic situations in the international sphere, through both foreign and domestic policies.
I could never have imagined the extent to which people’s lives become consumed by the elections. My entire Facebook newsfeed is constantly flooded with posts regarding my peers’ every political thought. These are people who plaster social media with their personal notions of each candidates’ merits, and thus only use social media to make fun of the opposition or brag about how tuned in they are to current events. These posts have zero effect on how other people will be voting, because they aren’t meant to convince. So why am I always being spammed with memes of the most recent debate?
We spent an entire lecture in USPS learning about how an individual’s vote doesn’t actually matter, because it makes such a minuscule effect on the final tally of votes. Obviously the electoral system would collapse if everyone realized this and proceeded to stop voting, but it begs the question of whether dedicating all this time and effort towards an election one has no control over whatsoever is really worth it.
I’m coming into this election season with the perspective of an international student, which gives me a bias different from those of the majority of my classmates. It frustrates me to see students who are going to abstain from voting on the basis that none of the candidates are “good.” I feel like they are not taking advantage of the privileges given to them by their country through their right to vote. It frustrates me to see politicians cater to certain interest groups just to win votes or receive funding, even if they don’t believe in these groups’ ideologies. Or to see them making promises that they will not, or will be unable to, keep when elected, because they no longer feel the need to, or just will not have the resources to do so.
The outcome of the presidential election retains importance to the rest of the world, but the constant stress throughout the election season is unnecessary for those of us not from the U.S. Instead of spending vast amounts of money on campaigns, instead of the swinging emotions generated by minute shifts in polling data, instead of debates centered around attracting as many voters as possible, the U.S. should engage in fixing its fundamental and long-term societal ills—education, healthcare, immigration, etc.
I do admire the passion with which American citizens are able to throw themselves into politics, but I feel that if people could split this passion—and campaign financing—and throw it into alleviating the societal problems of the day, the world would be a better, more resource-efficient place. Hurricane Sandy is not simply a factor affecting election turnout, it is a metaphor for the storm soon approaching American shores if the difficult issues confronting its society are not addressed.
