US election 2024: Aussies living in Washington DC weigh in on election

Australian Community Media

'I think one of the things I've found about America is they love to pick their sides.'

Transcript

00:00So we've heard a lot about what Americans think about the election today, but what about Australians?

00:05I caught up with Aussie husband and wife James and Emily Snowball to get their perspective as Australians living in DC.

00:16I think one of the things I've found with America is they love to pick their side.

00:19So it starts with your high school teams and everyone's got a really strong sense of

00:25camaraderie with their high school team, then it moves through to college.

00:29And you see that especially as it gets through to the political level.

00:33People like to pick their sides and they defend them fiercely without sort of sometimes being

00:38willing to listen to the other side.

00:40So it's almost instead of actually listening to views and opinions, it's, this is my sports team.

00:46It's, yeah, it's instead of feeling political, it feels more like you're watching a game

00:51of, I don't know, basketball or football.

00:54I almost feel like it's a little bit more difficult for people to vote here in the U.S.

00:57and they don't make it as accessible as back home.

01:00I know back home we can often vote on the weekend, for example, and whilst they do open early voting here,

01:05I feel like it is quite hard to vote early, especially hearing from my work colleagues who are American citizens

01:10and they can vote just about actually getting to voting.

01:14And I guess a lot of people and even someone actually in my own lobby building at work didn't know how to vote.

01:21And she's been an American citizen for decades.

01:24So, you know, she wasn't aware of how to vote.

01:27I think that's the biggest thing is that it's still foreign to a lot of American citizens here.

01:32Whereas back home, it's very open.

01:34You know, you vote every few years.

01:36It's mandatory here.

01:37No one gets fined.

01:38No one gets fined if they don't vote.

01:41And I think that's a really, really big difference.

01:43It's quite polarised, it feels like at the moment.

01:46It's very much two big campaigns and two polarised sides of the U.S.,

01:52especially leading up to this election.

01:53It's started to get, especially in the wake of the last one,

01:58businesses are starting to board themselves up.

02:00They're starting to get a little bit worried about what could happen.

02:03In general, people are still going about day to day, but it has changed sort of the feeling a little bit.

02:08We're trying to avoid going into the main side of D.C. just because of how everything is feeling.

02:13But in general, it's still day to day activities,

02:16just with this sort of overbearing sense that something might happen.

02:22It feels like it's a production here.

02:24So in Australia, you'll go for maybe a month of campaigning, maybe a little bit more.

02:29But we've been watching a year long campaign living here at the moment.

02:34So it's always going.

02:36They're always talking somewhere.

02:38They're always doing something.

02:39The ads on TV, the ads on social media.

02:43And rather than talking about policies, and it seems especially strong with the two current campaigns,

02:49it's more so like a slander campaign.

02:52So neither of them have much to say about what they're actually going to do.

02:56You have to look quite hard to figure out what either party is promising.

03:01They're working really hard to focus on just bringing the other side down.

03:04And really, they're digging into that divide that I mentioned.

03:08So the two sports team idea, they're really trying to pull people onto their side

03:13and keep them there as just blind loyalists rather than thoughtful voters.

03:18Yeah, obviously can't vote as an Australian here at the moment in DC.

03:22But I'm just hopeful that whoever is picked to become the next president,

03:28it's just calm and friendly.

03:30And there's a nice handover between the two.

03:33And I'm hopeful that whoever the candidate is that wins will keep up with what they've promised

03:38and that it will actually help us moving forward living here in America as well.

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