Conservatives Running the World

First Germany elected Angela Merkel a conservative compared to Britain's conservative Margaret Thatcher. Then in a shocking turn of events, France turned to a conservative in Nikolas Sarkozy. And now, South Korea is the latest to ditch the liberals in exchange for conservative leadership.

Lee Myung-bak, the conservative candidate, crushed the liberal opposition nearly 2 to 1, 48% to 26%.

President Roh Moo-hyun the liberal candidate proved incompetent in handling the economy and more importantly when dealing with North Korea. Roh strained ties with the US by criticizing the US's hard line tactics with North Korea.

Like France, the soft approach didn't go over well with South Koreans who brought in a change and elected a conservative.

Many South Koreans believe that Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy'' of being friendly towards North Korea, which continued under Mr Roh, brought them little in the way of security. Kim Jong Il's dictatorship developed and tested nuclear bombs despite it. South Koreans suspect that vast amounts of money have been paid to the north in return for summits with the dictator. Mr Lee wants an end to aid if North Korea does not give up its nuclear-weapons programme. He intends to use six-party talks (with China, America, Japan, Russia and North Korea) to put pressure on the north.

What is noteworthy is that while the rest of the world has complained about the US's aggressive foreign policy, they've been quick to change their own leadership to emulate the US's aggressive foreign policy.

Meanwhile the United States is flirting with a candidate, Barack Obama, that has shown complete naiveté and incompetent in regards of foreign policy.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pointed this out during a Democratic debate earlier this year. When asked if he'd meet with antagonistic leaders from hostile countries to the US, Obama stated he would without qualification. Only when Clinton pointed out how irresponsible and naïve it would be to meet with these nefarious type offering free propaganda and legitimacy to their corrupt rule did Obama add qualifications.

The one thing the US can least afford at this point in history is a president that doesn't know when he is being used as a pawn for propaganda purposes by a foreign leader that would love nothing more than to see the demise of the US.

Back to South Korea though. There is a reason the rest of the world has voted conservative over these past two years. They've had liberals and they know the world isn't mature enough for liberalism yet. Realism is much more effective at securing national interests. It seems that with liberalism the honest countries give up too much and get very little security in return. Just as the South Koreans how the "Sunshine Policy" worked out for them.