If the USA is the “leader of the free world”, where is my vote as a member of the “free world”? Who undemocratically appointed the US to leader and defender of freedom, democracy and the “American Way” without letting the other members of the “free world” get a say? US politics increasingly impacts on other Western nations, particularly my own, Australia. And since Australia is impacted by US politics, why don’t I get a say in their government, and be able to cast a vote in who gets to run the behemoth that rules the entire world?
Would the Tea Party be as powerful if other interested (non-US) parties had a say in what was going on? Would Dubyah have been elected for a second term (or even a first) if the rest of the “free world” had been able to have their say? I know that some would suggest that this is wrong, that another country’s citizens want to impact on the politics of different nation, but let me point out: Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and Honduras. The US has a long history of “intervening” in other countries’ politics for their own reason, and since that seems to be traditional, maybe it’s time the rest of us members of the “free world” we started demanding our rights as part of the US tradition.
Inspired by this very happy story in The Age (trigger warning for descriptions of violence)
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