"What do most Americans think of Argentina's president?"

I was asked this question yesterday. Answer: most American's don't know a whole lot about the politics of other nations. I went on to say that those who were aware probably didn't think she was doing the best job. I cited the economy. It was a safe answer. Most people here don't really like (more accurately: are very much opposed to) Christina Kirchner. She is something of a national joke that would be funnier if she wasn't actually running the country.

People here are politically charged, from what I've observed. I don't always agree with their views. Marxism was proved to be an ineffective form of government once. Something to do with Russia... There are a huge number of Marxists here. Maybe they missed that part of history? Anyway, politics in Argentina: Everyone votes. It's obligatory at the age of 18, but people may start voting at 16.  I think that everyone should vote. But I don't like the idea of enforcing that through obligation. Going into the reasons for that would be going way off topic. Basically, voting is a right that we have in the US. Hand in hand with our rights are our freedoms. We are free to choose who/what to vote for and whether or not to vote. In my opinion, it is responsibility to be involved in our political system by being informed and voting. But that is my opinion, and the awesome part of our system is everyone else has a right to their own opinions.

Many Argentines follow American politics. Mia and Marce had friends (a couple and their two girls) over yesterday. I had met the mother once before (very briefly) and had never met the father. Over the course of the afternoon I was asked about: my political beliefs, my religious beliefs, and my current relationship status. These are not unusual questions to receive. Political preferences: I like Obama and congress needs to be less polarized and start working together. Relationship status: No boyfriend ("Oh! You should start dating an Argentine"). It's the religion one I don't have a fast and easy answer to. The one I give is entirely too simple, to the point of not being true. But I digress. After I gave my fast assessment of the current political climate in America, I was informed that the reason he asked my opinion was that he was very curious about American politics. He felt that American politics serve as an example to a lot of the world. That when we do something in the US, other countries look and maybe repeat. Basically that while Americans see our issues as national discussions, the rest of the world is listening to our banter and what they observe influences what they do.

It's interesting to think about political involvement and the scale to which politics can have an effect, to compare the way politics are viewed in different places, to see how systems function or don't, and to consider all of factors that influence all of the above.

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Side note: Throughout this post I referred to "Americans" meaning from the US. That is because I am from the US. Here there is one continent in the Western Hemisphere, America, and everyone who lives on that continent from Canada to Chile is American, not just people from the US.  Here I am not America. I am a North American (referring to Canada or the US), una estadounidense, or a yankee.