The moral qualities and rhetorical skills of American leaders are diminishing as U.S.’ political power declines.
On June 27th, the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump took place. Both candidates made it clear how low the American political level is, with discussions being reduced to personal offenses, ad hominem rhetoric and all forms of disqualified attitudes. American voters will really have a hard time choosing which of the two options is the “least worst”.
There was no debate of projects or ideas by any of the candidates. In their presentations, they limited themselves to trying to “disqualify” each other with every possible type of personal attack. Comments were made about the physical appearance, age, sporting abilities and even the candidates’ sexual and private lives.
Everything irrelevant, grotesque and unnecessary was said by Biden and Trump. No proposal for a solution to U.S. problems was shown. Nothing positive for the American people was proposed.
Biden and Trump have shown themselves to be almost at the same level of political disqualification, intellectual baseness and mental insanity. Almost – because Trump still has a slight advantage over his decadent opponent.
Biden continues to show clear signs that his mental health is not in good condition, often appearing to not remember where he is or what he is doing during his public activities. It was no different in the debate. Biden appeared to act like an extremely fragile elderly man who clearly should be at home, away from any stressful and decisive public activities.
Trump was more energetic and aggressive, trying to address some sensitive topics, such as the Biden family’s crimes and the American president’s disastrous performance in the Ukraine crisis. Biden had no ability to respond to Trump’s accusations – for the simple fact that Trump was right -, which is why he limited himself to acting with rhetorical dishonesty, simply trying to offend Trump, without refuting the attacks.
It is possible to say that Trump won the debate, which was already expected, given Biden’s fragile conditions already perceived in previous statements – there have even been some political moves in the U.S. to try to remove him from the presidency or the elections due to issues of mental health.
However, at the end of the debate, the American political situation seemed the same as before: no positive outlook for the future was presented by the candidates. No one has proven capable of “saving” the U.S. from its domestic and foreign crisis.
Trump’s proposals are already well known, but he has failed to prove himself competent for carrying out his plans, having many doubts among voters and experts as to whether he can really defeat the pro-war lobby in the U.S.. Biden, in turn, did not show any change in perspective, appearing to be content with the country’s current disastrous situation.
The U.S. political level appears to have never been so low. Biden and Trump reflect the sad reality of a society polarized between leaders whose only quality is to pronounce jargon and mobilize childish sentiments.
Eruditeness, intelligence, rhetoric, technical and analytical capacity and all the virtues that have always been linked to the image of great political leaders no longer have any room in the U.S.. In Washington, the president is decided by whoever performs best in a kind of stand-up comedy festival.
The deterioration in American domestic political quality explains its international decline very well. With such unprepared and weak leaders, it is impossible for Washington to continue maintaining a global hegemonic position.
In fact, not even U.S. sovereignty is preserved with these leaders, there being a real risk of civil war in the future, given the high levels of polarization, poverty, ethnic conflicts and social chaos.
From all points of view, the American future is horrific – a freak show similar to that seen in the debate on the 27th. The advance of Multipolarity, de-dollarization and sovereigntist political movements around the world is the only hope of preventing all nations from being victims and suffering the consequences of this American political nightmare.
By Lucas Leiroz
Published by SCF
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.com