10. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind now that there are serious structural problems with the way America does democracy. All those who held such high hopes for Americanization and adopting US styles institutions, replicating them – can now have no doubt that there is much more to having a peaceful affluent society than having a nice looking constitution – which appears to be a piece of paper after all. The likely result of this is to spark international debate and discussion over “then what” if the American way cannot guarantee citizens freedom of choice, the right to pursue happiness and have a meaningful, fulfilling, life.
9. That the USA, as the single largest consumer of the world export market, might be forced to import less as it experiences financial difficulties from paying for the war and growing trade imbalances. This is great news for the vast majority of the world’s population – it means that international export prices will go down, there will be more available for the other 95% of the world, and maybe a lot of people in third world countries will get to eat their own foodstuffs rather than being forced to export it for nothing in return. Maybe this will indirectly cause a reduction in world poverty. If the USA chooses not to engage with the rest of the world on issues that affect us all, it would be at least consistent to ask them to stop drinking all the rest of the world’s water, burning all of the oil in big cars, eating the food, and taking all the clothes.
8. Canada might now decide to not adopt the US dollar as its currency and decide instead to Euro-ize. I think Bush would label this process “Eura-ification”.
7. That semantics matter – United States of America is easy to say, but united they clearly are not.
6. For all those who believed that high income per capita was the sole goal and indicator of a great nation, there is now evidence to rethink in a healthier direction – there is more to a nation that having high average incomes – there are all kinds of other factors that affect social well being such as democracy, freedom of speech, religion, peace, human rights, etc. all of which are being removed in the current USA.
5. Except for Bush’s religion, all others now see what happens if one religion claims to be the right one for everybody and uses the government as a tool to inflict its values on the rest of us in every way it can. I can only see this as promoting secularism in almost every way – and allowing all other religions to realize the value of letting people choose their own faiths for themselves peacefully.
4. That economists have been right all along – you cannot trust intentions and give blind faith to your government – although most people most of the time are sane, generous, nice, the fact of the matter is that we must build government institutions to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of by the 5% of the population who will organize and abuse that power at the expense of the rest – like we all lock our doors and keep our money in our pockets, we have to actively take part in democracies and building institutions to keep people like Bush out of power as much as possible in as many countries as possible.
3. The rest of the world can have no doubt or excuse of what it will be up against for the next four years as the Bush administration makes more cases for war(s) and tramples on more human rights and freedoms around the world. The election result, albeit an indicator of very rough times ahead, is also a wake up call to the rest of us that democracies are never completely achieved, they need to be constantly maintained and defended.
2. Often people need to see what happens when something is absent to appreciate its presence. Seeing the election results in the USA must mean that universal access to education is essential to the well functioning of a democracy – without it, you may end up with presidents like George W. Bush.
1. It has allowed the rest of the world to unite in a way that has never been possible before. Virtually every country and ethnicity in the world now stands together in its opposition to the Bush administration, including half of the USA. All events cause reactions and in spite of the fact that I do not like Bush being president, I am convinced that this will cause the opposite action which is for the rest of the world to see the value in developing common commitments to human rights, democratic development, peace and freedom to pursue happiness since these are no longer a goals in the USA for US citizens and certainly the welfare of other nations is nowhere on the agenda. I would guess that most of us do not want to see what has happened in the USA happen in our own countries.
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