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If The World Could Vote

Why are we so interested in how other people would vote for our leaders when so many of them don't have the right to vote for their own leaders?

Edit: this being an online poll, the results are also meaningless.
 
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If the world could vote (assumeing vote means legit elections):

China would be politicaly exciteing.
South korea and anyone else who felt like doing something nice would be trying to work out how to fix the former north korea.

A number of arab countries would be being run by rather radical islamists. Oil prices would probably go even higher in the short term.

Equatorial Guinea would be looking for someone to build them a sewage system. Moroco might actualy get out of western sahara (hey we can hope).
Cuba would see cigars dirrectly to the US.

Aung San Suu Kyi would probably run burma for a bit and it's oil wealth would probably allow her to sort out the country a bit.

Swizland would be run by trade union parties in the sort run.

Any other countries you want covered? (sorry but I can't really predict centeral asia).
 
No one in American should give a damn how other countries would vote for our President.

They don't live here. They don't contribute in any way. They won't have to deal with whatever changes are made within our own country.. laws, regulations, taxes. etc.
 
Whiplash said:
No one in American should give a damn how other countries would vote for our President.

They don't live here. They don't contribute in any way.
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Going by you level of imports and forigen borrowing and indeed forighen investment that isn't credible

They won't have to deal with whatever changes are made within our own country.. laws, regulations, taxes. etc.
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Of course we will. US raises traffis on certian items can result in the price crashing in europe. Elements of your tax system have a significant impacts on how your companies behave in overseas operations. Dito regulations.

Then there is the issues of your internal laws. For example your copyright laws can have a fair degree of impact on non US authors. As long as ICANN remains with the US it is in rather a lot of people's interest that any US president supports the first amendment (actualy that isn't true better to say rather a lot of people living in democracies interests, saudi arabia would probably wish otherwise).

It is in the interests of US voters to elect someone who the rest of the world (or at least the richer bits) can at least get along with, idealy get along with fairly well. Since constitutionaly Bush cannot run again this isn't likely to be a major problem this time around.

Oh palin is a potential liability but we can sit her next to Berlusconi and hope she slaps some sense into him (actualy I suspect they would get along fairly well even if no one else liked them).
 
Whiplash said:
No one in American should give a damn how other countries would vote for our President.

They don't live here. They don't contribute in any way. They won't have to deal with whatever changes are made within our own country.. laws, regulations, taxes. etc.
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What is it like to live in a rubber room with no windows?

There are a myriad of reasons to give a damn. geni mentioned a couple such as our trade pacts. But right now the biggest is terrorism. The best way to battle terrorism is with a coordinated, international effort that involves finances, mutual armed support, diplomacy, intelligence, etc. The best way to pursue these is with the sincere cooperation of our allies and, yes, our enemies. Bush's "You're either with us or against us" approach was one of the first and worst of his approach to the problem.

The best way to enlist the necessary cooperation is to give a damn what others think.
 
Wow. I didn't expect such a clear result...

And I certainly have to keep Burkina Faso in mind. They're up to no good. :D
 
Whiplash said:
No one in American should give a damn how other countries would vote for our President.

They don't live here. They don't contribute in any way. They won't have to deal with whatever changes are made within our own country.. laws, regulations, taxes. etc.
Click to expand...

Of course citizens of the US should care. We don't live in a hermetically sealed bubble. The Wall Street debacle has echoed throughout every financial market in the world. Bush's disastrous foreign policies have alienated countries that were once our closest, staunchest allies. And, as stated above, every country that trades anything with the US is affected by changes in laws, regulations, taxes, etc.

Should the world's opinion matter to US citizens? Only if we want our opinions to mean something to other nations of the world.
 
Whiplash said:
No one in American should give a damn how other countries would vote for our President.

They don't live here. They don't contribute in any way. They won't have to deal with whatever changes are made within our own country.. laws, regulations, taxes. etc.
Click to expand...


I think the others have responded to this fairly well; awfully narrow view provided by those blinders, eh?

In your view then, Bush's administration (or those of any of his predecessors for that matter) has had no effect on the rest of the countries on this rock we all share?
 
Well, do Americans get to vote in other countries elections too?
 
Travis said:
Well, do Americans get to vote in other countries elections too?
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It's not a question of voting but rather a question of considering the consquences of our national political decisions in the context of international relations. Of course Americans don't vote in, say, French elections. Nor the other way around. But that is not the question. Rather, as I see it, the issue is whether our (American) votes should factor in the state of our international relations. My answer is: yes.

But don't go extreme here. My answer is that international issues should be a consideration, not a determnation.
 
SezMe said:
My answer is that international issues should be a consideration, not a determnation.
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Precisely, the relationship with Asia, Europe and and the US is an issue at Australian elections but rarely is it as important as domestic issues.
 
Travis said:
Well, do Americans get to vote in other countries elections too?
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Historicaly you just overthrew any winners you didn't like.

Britian tended to cut out the whole elections thing entirely but different countries will have different aproaches.
 
If the world could vote the Chinese and Islamists would fill the House and Senate with Communists and Saudi and Iranian-style Islamists (different flavor, same medieval philosophy).

What a silly question!
 
WildCat said:
If the world could vote the Chinese and Islamists would fill the House and Senate with Communists and Saudi and Iranian-style Islamists (different flavor, same medieval philosophy).

What a silly question!
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The world would vote for kidnapping, imprisonment without any rights,
invading sovereign countries, war mongering, death-penalties and all
the other medieval philosophies??? Meh, you're just kidding, aren't you?
 
As usual, the republicans are afraid of letting more people vote...
Interesting that even in the US Obama has a truly overwhelming majority.
It should be called "if the internet could vote" of course.

ETA: also sad to see that many countries in Africa have no internet access.
 
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Smackety said:
As usual, the republicans are afraid of letting more people vote...
Interesting that even in the US Obama has a truly overwhelming majority.
It should be called "if the internet could vote" of course.

ETA: also sad to see that many countries in Africa have no internet access.
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The issue isnt the number of people,it's how many times those people vote each. Whats the problem with one vote per person?

And it seems every election the democrat candidate always has this overwhelming majority according to some yet just barely wins or loses.

Perhaps the majority is in some people's minds only?

As to the OP, like a few others believe who cares what the rest of the world thinks. When the rest of the world joins hands and sings Kumbaya and there's world peace,no crime,hunger etc. and is perfect then maybe we should care.
 
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