Americans with Passports - more Democrats or Republicans?

Actually, in the Air Force at least, dependents are required to have passports for overseas assignments, unless they will be staying behind in CONUS. I imagine this is so it is easier to pack up a troublesome dependent and ship them stateside if they get in trouble overseas.

A lot of military folks will get their own passports because they use overseas postings such as Korea or Japan as a jumping-off point to get to other places like the Philippines, China, Australia, etc. I know several lower enlisted troops who were able to go on backpacking trips in Vietnam and the like this way (airfare is obviously a bit cheaper if you are already in Asia versus trying to get there from the US). Me, whenever I travel internationally, I try to use my passport instead of military ID because it’s more discrete.

Then again, I hate “broadcasting” that I’m military even when traveling domestically. Not so much because of concern with terrorists or what not, but because it tends to result in the most obnoxious people wanting to start up conversations with me about my job.

If I’m on vacation, why the hell do I want to talk about work? :rolleyes::smiley:

I have noticed that Americans tend to stick together when overseas. Most nationalities do, but Americans to a very large extent.

But a lot of Europeans don’t need a passport to travel internationally, if we have one it’s because we’ve gone to a place where one was needed.

I can sort of understand why Dopers expect Republicans to be less likely than Democrats to travel abroad for pleasure, but I disagree with the assumption that Democrats will be less likely to travel abroad on business. The majority of my American coworkers who travelled abroad were either Democrats or to their left; being a Democrat isn’t incompatible with being a business traveller.

Don’t be so sure. What you have you have in bigger chunks: other places don’t have mountains as big or plains as large but they do have an enormous variety of geographical features.

Those states that show the least amount of passports are the poorest in the country. That seems to be the biggest factor, not political views.

Although I’m still in part time its been many years since I was stationed overseas. At the time I also had a passport simply because it was discrete. But I was able to travel from Germany to London (pre-EU) just using my military ID and my DA Form 31. British customs specifically asked for my leave form. Going into East Germany to get to Berlin required special travel papers and your ID. I’m sure it has always depended on what country you were going to.

There’s no doubt that Americans tend to overestimate the diversity of their own country. Sure, geographically it is amazingly gorgeous and diverse, but that’s what you expect from huge continental empires. Russia and China are also geographically amazing, though perhaps not to the same level as the US.

Culturally, it’s a different story. I’ve even heard Americans deny that there is such a thing as American culture - that the differences between states are like international differences. Nonsense. There also seems to be an assumption (found in this thread by some posters) that you can find all foods and cultures in the USA, so why go elsewhere to see them? But that’s also nonsense. There are loads of basic British and Irish foods that are almost impossible to find in the US.

A lot of American college students do take foreign vacations, but they call it ‘study abroad’.

Sadly, that foreign travel is so rare here means that you get a lot of smug 20somethings who think that their trip makes them citizens of the world, and boy will they tell you about it.

That said, the geographical distance issue is a big one. If I take a vacation from the US to Europe or especially Asia, I’ve probably burnt my travel money for the year.

For good reason :smiley:

Haha well perhaps, but in my experience many Americans will deny the possibility of such a thing.

For the record I have never heard anyone say “I wish I could find more English food.”

I have, actually, but that’s not the point. When I have complained about the unavailability of various Welsh and Irish staples, my American friends have assured me that I must just not be looking in the right places, because America Has Everything. Even basics like back bacon, bacon joints (Americans substitute corned beef), black and white pudding, faggots and rissoles are hard to find. I’d also kill for a pastie.

Note I’m not complaining about the US here, merely saying that the US is like every other country in having a very limited and often bastardised selection of foreign foods available.

But there are no foreign destinations in the EU. It’s one big, happy family!

Almost all joking aside, It’s 1,080 miles to Vancouver, B.C., from Los Angeles and 3,857 between Honolulu and Tokyo. You’d be wise to carry extra windshield wipers for that one.

Back bacon shouldn’t be that hard to find. It’s called Canadian bacon most places I’ve seen. I’ve seen it in restaurants as well as supermarkets.

Definitely possible. But if you look at the demographics of people who are actually doing it, I expect you see a lot more rich people.

Even the poor college kids who are backpacking around are often pretty rich. They may not have a lot of money to their name, but they’re middle class kids with the bank of Mom and Dad to fall back on. Most of them probably don’t have to, but having that kind of safety net makes a big difference in one’s risk tolerance.

I am not registered to either political party and I have an expired passport. If I was a card-carrying Democrat or Republican, would I have kept my passport up to date?

Clicking that link, I was also struck by the very strong correlation between passports per state and “blue” voters per state. Since 40% of a Red state votes Blue, and vice versa, the correlation might not be quite what it seems, but I’d bet on it.

BTW, in 1979 I made several trips to Europe with a fellow American engineer. He insisted on staying only at hotels that took American Express Card, chose only the most American-like restaurants, and said several times – without acting like it was a joke – that his only priority was to hurry home so he could “hear the Star-Spangled Banner when the TV station signed off.”

Has anyone mentioned that American travelers tend to seem much more parochial than European travelers? :wink:

So Americans are dickheads if they don’t travel abroad. And if we do travel abroad but just for vacation, we’re also dickheads. If we tell you about it.

Got it.

Many of us like to go on vacation in cognito, sneaking about your countries totally un-noticed and impossible to tell apart from any of the locals due to our following of local customs.

Why, nobody in Japan or Korea ever noticed that I was American. :smiley:

If you got that from my post, you need to learn to read.

Back bacon is findable, but much of what is marketed as Canadian Bacon in the US is not back bacon.

pdts

That’s true. But I’ve been poor, and I’ve been rich – or at least quite well off – and I’ve done a lot more international travel in latter periods. When poor I’ve had to save for years to go abroad; while “rich” it’s been no big deal to jet to Europe for the weekend.

Ran out of time so have to skip a few posts. Sorry if this is redundant.

I think the the Europe/USA travel delta is down to vacation time, 100%. Most Europeans get at least four weeks off per year. I don’t know anyone in the US who has that much time off. There are a few at top levels who may be entitled to it, but they wouldn’t dare take it all and expect to keep their positions. Add that to the incease in travel time just to get out of country and it’s easy to see why the difference.

I’ve also noted that in these discussions when a USA citizens says “Well, I’ve been to Canada and Mexico” the Europeans inevitably scoff that it doesn’t count. But the equivalent travel time would be to compare the number of Europeans who visit Africa or China. That same European is patting him/herself on the back for riding through the Chunnel to France.

As for the OP, my Democrat friends are far more likely to settle for low-budget travel, so most are fairly well traveled by their mid-30’s. My Republican friends mostly wait until they can afford good cruises or 4star hotels, thus guarenteeing that they’ll not travel much until their 40’s, and then have basically the same experience everywhere they go.

We are of course stereotyping here , jsut by the nature of the question, but in general it’s pretty safe to say that Liberals go to a new place to get to know the place and the people, and Conservatives go there to selectively sample the best of a place while hopefully maintaining the general comfort level to which they are accustomed.

Again, this is the relatively small sample of my aquaintances, but none of my Conservative friends would consider bringing a backback to Europe.

It’s also true though that most of the Liberals are at a slightly higher financial level, it just doesn’t show as much.