It’s Election Day in Italy.
I have paid as little attention as possible to the presidential election currently underway at home, but I have not been able to avoid the near-constant jabber of the process here in Venice. (Frankly, it has been ruining MTV for me!) For once, I’m glad my Italian is not fluent: I don’t want to know what all the contenders are trying to get across to voters.
And when I say “all the contenders… “
Americans readers, you think we have problems in the U.S. with Democrats, Republicans, and a handful of Independents? These people have at least seventeen political affiliations. Seventeen! See for yourself this roster of senatorial candidates, listed by their parties (only sixteen of them in this race). The mind reels!
I’m grateful to be among the blissfully ignorant and utterly uninvolved this time around. The sickening circumstances of the past few years in the U.S. and all the damage done to its economy and the quality of life there have cost me my usual healthy appetite for politics. At least for now.
Here in Venice, I can be in the world, but not of it. At least for a little while.
