What do Americans think?

Lima, Peru – It’s a question I hear at least once a day, and after nearly three months in Peru, I can’t say that answering it has become much easier.

Calling on the token foreign student sitting in the front row of the classroom is an easy way for a professor to add a little international flair to classroom discussion while encouraging participation from a demographic often disposed to quiet note-taking and non-participation. 

If I had to guess, I would venture to say that the questions are asked in a light-hearted manner.

The intent is, I suppose, not to accurately study the opinions of Americans, or any other nationality in the case of other foreign students, but rather to include perspectives from people with a different worldview.

Supplying a response, however, is less of a straightforward matter. That is to say, I am almost never asked about an issue the American public has given due consideration and for which we have reached a consensus.

The job would be far easier if the question were, for example, “What do Americans think about nose picking?”

“Not in public,” I could answer with confidence.   

But a lack of public debate and/or serious divisions make it difficult, if not impossible, to commit Americans as a group to a single position.

Take for example the following: “What do Americans think about development aid to the third world?”

To provide an honest answer is to put an audience to sleep: Most probably haven’t given the specifics a lot of consideration but likely agree that poverty is undesirable.
However, differences are likely to arise when issues like tax increases and eliminating domestic poverty before improving the situation of those around the world are taken into consideration.

Granted, for anyone not directly concerned with the nuances of American social and political debates, the details doubtlessly seem like more of a hindrance than help. Yet oversimplifying the domestic debate to make it relevant to a foreign audience is an underestimation of the richness of thought surrounding any given issue. 

While inaccurate to portray the political landscape as rigidly divided between liberals and conservatives on issues like health care reform, human rights, the role of religion in the public sphere and foreign policy, to name a few, I also find it necessary to explain that differences signify that there is perhaps no quintessentially “American” answer to many questions.

It’s also a fact I’ve come to value in the last few months.

Living in a region that in the not-too-distant past routinely saw democratically-elected leaders overturned by military coups, one cannot help but feel a renewed appreciation for the fact that public debate has prevailed and Americans have chosen not to let individual difference trump a fundamental commitment to democratic society.

Of course, a history of American support for many military coup leaders in Latin America makes it impossible to chastise regional democratic lapses.

Perhaps all that can be said, then, is that hopefully diverse opinions and public debate will always make it hard to summarize what Americans think.