WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

After staying up until 5 am to see Obama's victory safely sealed, I slept through class until noon. When I woke up, the first thing I did was watch his victory speech, which made me cry. How incredible! Looking at all of the pictures from the rally made me wish I had been back in Chicago for the election, but I also noticed something else. All of the young people in the pictures were smiling and shouting, but the older people were crying. For them, this has been a long saga from the Civil Rights Movement to what many people are already calling a "post-racial America" and Obama's election is the culmination of a long, hard-fought battle for equality. At the same time, I was disappointed to see that my home state passed the ban on gay marriage. I couldn't believe that so many people had voted for something so clearly discriminatory at the same time that they marked their ballots for the first black president of the United States. It made me realize that, just as racial prejudice was the storyline of our parents' generation, homosexuality will likely have its own version of the Civil Rights Movement during our generation's lifetime. Think about it: almost all of us know people who are gay and have little problem with their sexual orientation, and many of us are for gay rights such as the right to marriage even though it doesn't affect us personally; meanwhile, people among the generations of our parents and grandparents are often the ones holding most tightly to anti-gay prejudices, just as their parents and grandparents clung to racism and fought the inevitable progress of civil rights for African Americans. Just some food for thought, I guess, on such an historic day.

In the meantime, I'm excited to see what the response will be in Spain. I already know what my uber-conservative (and pretty racist) senora is going to say. But I'd like to see what normal people are thinking and how this election might already be changing some opinions of America over here in Europe.

it's a small world after all

I’m currently sitting in my señora’s kitchen plugged into the ghetto Internet router, cradling a roll of toilet paper for my runny nose (yep, sick in my first week and unable/too lazy to find Kleenex) and contemplating a siesta before we go out to celebrate our first week in Spain tonight at Pacha, another club. Yep, I'm in Spain for the next three months, studying, living with an older single woman, and attempting to improve my Spanish to near fluency. I made it through my first week of classes relatively unscathed, except for contracting this mystery illness, although I can tell that what appears to be only a small amount of homework is going to take much longer than expected since it’s all in Spanish. None of my classes are particularly challenging content-wise, but focusing on understanding and speaking Spanish for an hour and a half can get very tiring. Plus, it’s hard to relax when I get home because our señora obviously wants to hear about our day and chat with us about travel plans, food, the girls who stayed with her last year (fellow sorority members), etc—in Spanish. I’m generally okay with it, but my roommate has a hard time when she’s tired and hungry. I think I’m glad we live together so that whenever we get mentally exhausted, we can just lapse into English.

Overall, this week has been a blur, and I feel like I’m living in a bubble of sunshine and fiestas while life continues as usual, or worse than usual, at home. With the economic crisis dominating the headlines, growing tension between Pakistan and US forces in Afghanistan, and the continuing (never-ending…) election season and all the drama surrounding it, I’ve been trying to stay aware and in touch with what’s going on outside Madrid. That’s why it was refreshing when my professor for “Spain and the European Union” started off our first class Tuesday by discussing what’s happening on Wall Street and reminding us that all eyes around the world are focused on our upcoming election (as well as making some Sarah Palin jokes, of course). As he put it, who becomes the next president of the United States matters just as much to Europeans as it does to us, except that they can’t vote. He also took time to compare our electoral process to the elections in European countries. Theirs tend to last only a few months, while ours has turned into an 18-month marathon of mud slinging and pandering. As he put it, whenever a country is going in the wrong direction, European voters automatically vote for a party elsewhere on the political spectrum, though whether that is good or bad is certainly up for subjective judgment. He also asked us why Americans have an aversion to voting for “elitist,” educated politicians, telling us that he’d love to have a beer with his neighbor but would never trust him to run the country. Clearly none of us could answer that question since we are all “elitist” according to the currently popular definition.

Later that night, as we were relaxing at a bar, a group of French guys insisted on asking us all whether we were voting for Obama and giving enthusiastic high-fives to those who answered in the affirmative. While those guys were kind of annoying, and most of us are tired of thinking about politics and are relieved to be outside of the United States during the final two months before the election, encounters like that make me realize that European and American interests are inextricably linked, whether we like it or not. I was initially excited to study abroad here mostly just to practice my Spanish, and I was actually a little disappointed that I hadn’t put myself on track to visit the Middle East, my main region of interest. But now I’m hoping that studying abroad here will help me learn more about the ways in which European powers rely on the United States, and in what ways we, too, depend on Europe to maintain our own strength. I’m interested to learning more about the power of diplomacy that holds the European Union together and perhaps even getting a sense of whether the average person’s attitude toward war and aggression are different than the prevailing views in America. Plus, it’s always interesting to hear an outsider’s perspective, and based on what my professor told us, I have a feeling that I’ll be hearing plenty of those as soon as the election results are in.

somewhere karl rove and dick cheney are celebrating

Ugh, this upcoming election has gotten even more frustrating and annoying than it was during that endless primary season. It's making me really glad that I'll be leaving the country tomorrow to study in Spain for the next three months. Besides the fact that Sarah Palin's voice is about the most grating, irritating sound in the entire world, she keeps repeating the same stump speech full of false assertions and dodging the issues entirely. Meanwhile, an old and bumbling John McCain keeps thumbs-upping (remind you of anyone?), riding the Palin wave, and flying under the radar (maybe he should have tried that tactic to avoid getting CAPTURED in Vietnam... ok that was bad of me, but come on, the man crashed like four airplanes. And none of that is relevant to his ability to govern). And now they've even hijacked Obama's change mantra, which simply does not apply to either McCain or Palin as the media has continued to reveal and the masses have continued to ignore. As his own campaign aide said, this election isn't about the issues; it's about personality.

You would think the American people would be smart enough to see through this facade. All the facts are staring Americans in the face: the scandals and ties to lobbyists, the voting records, the failed tax policies that promise relief to the very wealthiest and none to the middle and lower classes, the guarantee of continued Bush-Cheney policies on everything from the Iraq War to the economy, the skillful avoidance of discussing the actual issues. How can the Democrats even run an intelligent campaign when the opponent fails to engage? It's like trying to have a debate with someone who responds to every jab by sticking out his (or, more likely in this case, her) tongue and making googly eyes. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans lack the interest and attention spans for politics and fail to truly consider the issues beyond the political charades. Personally, I blame this at least partially on the ridiculously long electoral process that leaves everyone mentally exhausted and tired of politics long before the election takes places. If I'm completely tired of hearing about Obama and McCain, there can't be much hope that the majority of Americans haven't hit the proverbial mute button. Unfortunately, Rove-ian politics work wonders in a situation like that, and the McCain campaign is banking on the fact that most Americans don't care enough to really think about this historical decision. They're banking on ignorance, stupidity, and carelessness to get people to vote against their own interests. By focusing on babies, God, and hockey moms, the McCain campaign has effectively diverted attention away from the real issues. And that seems to work.

If McCain wins this election, Americans deserve for our country to continue the downward spiral of the last eight years. Unfortunately, the enlightened among us will be along for the horrible ride.

sarah who?

Does John McCain really think women are that stupid? Maybe I should bite my tongue until I see the poll numbers... many women may, in fact, be that stupid. But, come on.... Sarah Palin? Not only is his pandering embarassingly obvious, but in case anyone was fooled by such a lack of subtlety on the part of the McCain campagin, Palin herself couldn't resist from mentioning Hillary in her acceptance speech. (The speech, by the way, was ridiculous and weak on content but well-delivered... and we all know America is about style, not substance. Who's playing to America's celebrity obsession now?)

I'll give Hillary's supporters some credit, and perhaps John McCain should have, too. Yes, Sarah Palin is a woman. After that, I'm not really sure what she has in common with Hillary Clinton. It's certainly not years of experience, a liberal policy platform, and the respect of her peers. Palin has been the mayor of a teensy town of 6,000 (she was also her town's representative at the Miss Alaska pageant once... how much competition could she have really had?). She has "fought corruption" in Alaska, a state still plagued by it, while perhaps perpetuating the tradition with her cavalier attempts to fire her sister's state trooper ex-husband, as well as the man who refused to fire him. All the woman could think of to talk about today was how her husband is the ultimate man's man and they have made lots of babies. But it's not just Hillary supporters he's going after; it's Republican women who weren't excited about McCain and unlikely to bother voting in November. However, I must say that if I were a Republican woman, I would be insulted... there are many more female conservatives more qualified for the job. No woman wants a female vice president selected merely on the basis that she has ovaries; they want a woman to be chosen because her merits were assessed and she was deemed the most qualified candidate. Palin clearly is not.

Here's the catch, though: for the majority of Americans, I fear that her manly blue-collar husband and good Christian values are enough to trump any questions about her qualifications. I actually know people, family friends from St. Louis, who have regularly put their trust in businesses that turned out to be corrupt or poorly run, solely because "they're good Christians." In their eyes, this apparently implies competence because "God's on their side!" These family friends have lost their home in the mortgage crisis, the husband has lost his money and pride by pursuing risky careers with questionable businesses, and their marriage is in shambles. Yet they continue to vote Republican and probably love this Sarah Palin character. What have the Republicans ever done for them? What have the Republicans ever done for ANY working class people? Nothing. But they'll continue to talk about fishing and moose-hunting and Jesus and babies instead of competent policy, and that's how they win over the masses.

As my mom said today: if McCain and Co. manage to pull out a victory this November, we're going to have to move to a more intelligent country.