There is the problem of U.S. citizenship, but if you can toss out treaties and Congressional war powers and the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment, if you can rig the Democratic Primaries, blame the people who revealed what you were doing, and then effectively eliminate those primaries altogether while still seeking to extradite a journalist for prosecution, then I say go ahead and let everyone who lives near U.S. military installations vote and run in U.S. elections.

Why do I think Gustavo Petro is qualified?

He’s been elected and served as president — of Colombia.

He’s learned that violence is less effective than nonviolent action.

He can clearly distinguish between a credible fact and a rumor.

He doesn’t exclude Palestinians from humanity.

He proposes that the United States stop spending everything on war and instead enact a global Marshall Plan.

He proposes that the United States generate solar energy where the sun is, namely Latin America — which he can make happen due to being President of Colombia.

He proposes reinstating the freedom of the press and dropping the prosecutions of journalists and whistleblowers.

He proposes peace negotiations in Ukraine and in Palestine.

He wants accountability for wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, as well as Ukraine and Palestine.

He wants to uphold the legal ban on any nation attacking — or sanctioning — any other.

Petro could also take a turn as president of Italy, where he has citizenship and where the turnover of presidents is frequent and yet usually futile. I think an exchange of presidents around the world could be highly beneficial in (1) making governments better global citizens, and (2) scaling back presidential powers. It’s a proposal that won’t be taken seriously, but if Joe Biden were offered, for example, the Saudi throne, I think he would secretly consider it.

Of course, in all seriousness, there are huge numbers of people who would be better U.S. presidents than anyone who ever has or ever will attempt to win that job. A dart thrown at a list of the world’s residents would be preferable to any of the actual candidates. We won’t get that or any other solution without a massive activist movement, and if we were to put everything into a massive activist movement it would matter much less who sits atop the throne in Washington, D.C.