The American people have chosen a new road. It is of course their right.
The US has traditionally been regarded as the leader of the democratic or free world. Americans have decided to no longer fulfil that role. They have turned inward under a narrow nationalistic leadership.
It is now officially America first, with slogans like mass deportation, border walls and trade wars. Their own interest will now take absolute priority and their friends will no longer be determined by democratic principles. In fact, dictators are their new leader’s preferred partners.
The US will no longer have a special role in the democratic world. Yet democracy is still the best political model on the table, despite its shortcomings. SA became a member of that family in 1994. Equality before the law and the constitution is non-negotiable.
A rearrangement of the world order, accompanied by uncertainty and chaos, is on the cards again, as it was four years ago. The US is disappearing from my radar.
Dawie Jacobs
Pretoria
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