American psyche
This was the first time I voted in the presidential election of the United States as a Bangladeshi-American citizen. Although not too extensively, I tried to get somewhat involved in the Democratic campaign and followed the race very carefully for the past year or so. There is one thing that I noticed in this year's election and its eventual outcome, which might change the misconception about America that many people in Bangladesh possess. In Bangladesh, people commonly view America as a modern, western country who are not very religious or do not care too much about religion. Many also think the re-election of George W. Bush is just a mandate on the Iraq war by the American people. However, there are many other things to consider. Even though a lot of people thought either economy or terrorism will be one of the top issues that people vote on in this election, it just didn't happen. Surprisingly, cultural values topped the voters' list of concerns and that include topics like gay marriage, abortion rights and many such things. A high number of evangelical Christians went out and voted in this year's election just because they feel very passionately about these issues from their religious point of view. That is why the maximum turnout in American political history apparently helped the Republicans more, proving all speculations wrong. I think this clearly contradicts the view of many, if not most, Bangladeshis who assume that America is just a non-religious western country. In fact, a majority of Americans are just as religious as we are, maybe even more in some cases.
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