FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Imagine a global leadership debate

Imagine a global leadership debate

American politics continues to reveal more of its true nature, for better or worse

The first debate between America’s major presidential candidates – Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton – was as entertaining as it was predictable. The debate was also a necessary step in the path to power in American politics, which places great emphasis on public performance, both in words and gestures. Contenders for office are given a chance to bolster the public’s perceptions about their strengths and decisiveness. 
The public debate can be a tricky affair, since so much rides on the unknown questions to be posed by the assigned moderator and any follow-up questions that might arise. In the US primary and presidential debates, the moderator’s role has itself been under close scrutiny because the country is so sharply polarised. Such “referees” are duly castigated if they prove inadequate to the task. 
The debates furthermore involve complicated rules as well as other limitations that the candidates are supposed to understand beforehand. It is nevertheless common for the contenders to bend or break the agreed-upon rules in one fashion or another in the interest if scoring extra points with the viewers. 
On Monday, at the first of the presidential candidates’ three scheduled formal debates, Trump’s style provided a case in point. As the former host of a reality-TV show, he knows the medium well and has set out to exploit it to the full. His frequent interruptions of Clinton served to distract viewers from the serious issues under discussion. In his turns to speak he avoided directly answering the questions posed and in his gestures and responses came across as mediocre, if not simply obnoxious, as with his repeated posturing of the right arm that’s come to be known as “the Cobra”. 
Still, he’s well aware that when Americans head to the polls on November 8, few of them will remember or even care about the small details, placing their faith instead in general impressions and their own deeper-set beliefs. 
The American Dream, in which anyone can become a hero, or even president, makes room for an inherent belief in the power of coaching. Anyone can be coached to create the illusion of leadership skills, competency – any desired characteristic, in fact. And this in turn gives politicians the confidence to say whatever needs to be said to win votes and then, once in office, do the opposite or modify their pledges to fit reality. 
The first presidential debate was indicative of patterns in the questions and responses we’ll see in the remaining confrontations. Americans, like anyone else, love watching prominent figures engaged in public combat and seeing who goes for the bait and who escapes the hook. In the United States this is a gladiatorial Superbowl.
But American-style politics would be a poor fit for the rest of the world. Whatever is done in the name of American democracy is done only for Americans. If Trump, by some seeming miracle, is elected president, the world’s pre-eminent superpower is apt to wither significantly. A braggart to the core, he would demand that America be alone in its greatness and that all other nations be subservient to it. He would apply his business credo to diplomacy and finance alike – they who have money and power are they who rule.
People around the planet have been fed blanket television coverage of the US presidential race as though nothing else matters. Perhaps, someday, the leaders of all the major powers can share the same stage, answering questions posed by citizens everywhere. It would be a time-consuming process, to be sure, but out of it might emerge the right candidates with the vision and understanding to lead the world into the future.
RELATED
nationthailand