Amy's Robot

Bush and Europe

The headline of a New York Times piece from Sunday (sorry people, I've been busy over here) on how Europeans feel about Bush says it all: "Europeans Like Bush Even Less Than Before". Conservative members of the British Parliament think he's frightening, and several think the world would be better off with Kerry in power. And these are the Conservatives. Where does that put Tony Blair, who's been put in the awkward position of supporting Bush even though he and Clinton were wearing one half each of those Best Friends Forever necklaces in the '90's? Even the Tories think Bush is too conservative, so perhaps Blair has to start forming alliances based on actual policy alignment, not just cozying up to whoever's in power this year.

The most interesting comments in the article come from Spaniards interviewed by a political scientist. People in Spain are saying, "I'm very frustrated that I can't vote in the U.S. elections, because these are the ones that affect my way of life more than anything else." If the U.S. is going to play Lead Nation of the World and make the decisions that have global impact, should non-Americans have some voice in U.S. elections? The Guardian noted in a March editorial that nothing will change the state of world politics more than a change in the White House. It makes me wish we had some kind of International Vote Donation program, so that any American who plans to not vote in the upcoming election could donate their vote to some Italian, or Spaniard, or German, so that they could help influence what happens to global politics.

categories: International, Politics, War and Security
posted by amy at 12:05 PM | #