subscribe Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Subscribe now
Melissa Fehl casts her vote next to a cat named Skye in the US presidential election at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the US, November 5 2024. Picture: REUTERS/QUINN GLABICKI
Melissa Fehl casts her vote next to a cat named Skye in the US presidential election at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the US, November 5 2024. Picture: REUTERS/QUINN GLABICKI

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

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.

subscribe Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Subscribe now

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.