Midterm Political Fallout - or how you can't even escape US political stupidity halfway around the world.

Just back from a phenomenal evening at my J-Gparents. I was picked up by Yoshiko and arrived to the scent of sweet onions and chicken. I hate to admit it, but i've discovered that i inevitably love gpa's cooking more than gma's. Maybe its her responsibility toward health and lowering their cholestorol or his kindred love of onions, but once i realized he was behind the stove I hurriedly rushed to the kitchen. He let me 'help' by beating eggs (with chopsticks, something i still find funny), a completely foreign concept in the their house where we can't even clear the table without Yoshiko (gma) chiming in with "now i'm in my sixties, i dont need any help. When i'm in my seventies, then you'll help." She seems to define her life in decades.

After gpa left for his evening social dancing class we switched from green to herbal tea, put away the nuts and broke out the chocolate and really indulged, hitting the bilingual button on the remote and listening to English language news. A long discussiong ensued, winding between the tragedy of a tornado in Hokaido, Yoshiko's memories of US soldiers stationed in Nagasaki-ken, education in Japan, and more. And of course the news was dominated by reports of the midterm elections (and still a few notes about Kerry's month old comment and Bush's recent 'comma' analogy) opening up a new and very infrequently discussed issue - Politics.

Largely politics in Japan don't exist the way we think of them in the States. Its not the politics of issues and economics and international relations and war and trade and domestic policy and welfare and religion and education. Its the politics of relationships. When i asked Yoshiko the main difference between the leading party (LDP) and the top opposition party (the DP. Note, the only difference is that the ruling party is the Liberal Democratic Pary while the opposition is just the Democratic Pary) she said it was all in relationships. that actually the reason one party had ruled in Japan for so long (basically since the second world war) is because no one can really tell the difference between the two parties or other parties that crop up. In both parties there are liberals and conservatives in fairly equal balance, and the only real issue is power - the power of relationships and the power utilized by the current leader. Because Prime Minister Abe is a 'hardliner' and very conservative the DFL is getting a conservative reputation, but as soon as Abe is out of the hot seat, it will change.

In the midst of discovering some realities of Japanese politics i was reminded of the realities of American politics. Even here, halfway around the world, US politics dominate the evening news (and both in English and Japanese). Even the midterm elections which seem less influential on the international sphere or at least less inflammatory and publicized, are still on the news two days later. And Yoshiko, my 65 year old japanese psuedo grandmother knows who won the gubernatorial election in Florida, Rumsfeld resigned as Secretary of Defense, and that the House was re-taken by the Democrats. I'm not even sure my actual American grandmother knows all that. And there is something shockingly unfair in realizing how much attention the rest of the world pays to what happens in the US. Do we deserve either the attention or the scrutiny (okay, i'm not one to fault the US, so yeah we probably do deserve it)? Is it fair that with one election the rest of the world is already concerned, perhaps more than many americans, with the election two years down the road? Yoshiko doesn't fault me for my liberal ways, even though she's admitted that things are better for Japan with a Republican White House.

But in the end, fair or not, the conversation makes me feel lucky. Lucky to have the experience of politics (at least in theory) as ideas and ideals. Lucky to have the freedom to vote and attempt to elect the most intelligent and qualified leaders. Lucky to have friends even in this far away country who understand, are interested in, and discuss such issues with me. Lucky that I will return to the land ruled by a man who called a war he started "a comma in history" to do my damndest to make sure our next leader is less asinine than he.