Is it Time for the World to elect the US President?
Watching the inauguration of President Obama and the reactions of the nations of the world bought home to me just how much influence the President of the USA has in world affairs. The influence is so great that it is time to consider the possibility that the people of the world need to vote in the election of the US President.
In the case of Barack Obama it is likely that if it had been a world wide it is likely President Obama would have been elected. But the immediate past President would have been unlikely to have received a second term.
Australia, like the rest of the world, is suffering from the incompetence of the previous American administration. My feelings about the election of G W Bush started with incredibility, progressed to disbelief with a lot of humour, but ended the last twelve months with the pray that the world would survive G W's term. I think it was a close call.
My country is suffering, as is the rest of the world, from the incompetence of the previous US President in managing the economy. What is basically a sound economy in Australia has been decimated by US policies over which Australia had no control. In the area of combating global warming America has set the word back years. It looks as if America is now set to play catch up but it could be too late.
The American population is about three percent of the world's population. But that three percent controls the world. This is not acceptable long term. It will change because it must change. There is the possibility that America will collapse and cease to be a world power. That is a real possibility because if it continues as it has for the last eight years it will destroy itself from within.
Another possibility is that the world tells America that it will not accept the continued interference of America in world affairs. There are signs of this also being a real possibility. It could be a question of survival for the world.
Yet another possibility is that the world takes a more active part in American affairs. It is overdue. America has interfered whenever and wherever it has felt inclined. The continuous rhetoric about democracy should not apply only at home, it must apply world-wide.
Whatever happens, American cannot continue as it has in the recent past. I feel confident that Barack Obama can undo much of the damage done by George Bush, but that does not mean that everything is OK. After Obama does the world end up with another Bush? I don't think the nations of the world would accept another Bush and if America cannot find away of accommodating its allies as well as it opponents it will not have any allies.
David Young