Stumble and stammer are far from being the most important problems of USA leadership

In a world where television performance of leaders appears to have become even more important in election time than their real performance, a stumbling or stammering candidate running for the top most post in a country runs the risk of losing the race even before the real election.  However it should be pointed out that any such awkwardness is very far from the real issues on the basis of which the performance of any country’s leadership should be examined, particularly in the context of the most powerful and influential countries whose top leadership can be said to constitute the world leadership for all practical purposes.

The USA is certainly the most powerful and influential country in the world. Despite being very powerful and very rich, its important human and social development indicators are low in comparison to other comparably rich countries and have suffered recent declines. This is true of such leading indicators as maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate and life expectancy. Rates of mental health problems among children and teenagers are so high that medical professionals here have called for a national emergency to be declared on this account. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in year 2021 41% of high school students (57% of girls) experienced “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness”. According to this survey, 10% of high school students attempted suicide in 2021.

Student debt here is among the highest in the world so that most of those passing out of colleges already feel burdened. Problems of homelessness and housing related insecurity are very high. A very large number of people are lagging behind on paying for basic utilities. According to a study by the Urban Institute in 2018 nearly 40 per cent of the adults and their families struggled to afford at least one of the basic needs of health care, housing, utilities or food. The Elderly Economic Security Standard Index found in 2016 that a majority of them lacked “the financial resources to meet basic needs.”

Despite having a privileged position in world financial system and running huge deficits, the USA authorities have not been able to ensure basic needs of all their citizens. Huge inequalities are at the bottom of very significant sections of the population being deprived of basic needs. The bottom 50% of the population has only 1.5% of the country’s wealth.

Corruption has been almost institutionalized in the close relationships of politicians including elected representatives, officials and big business interests including giant weapon companies.

These important national issues have not received the urgent attention that was needed in the USA election campaign so far. On the other hand the TV performance of presidential candidates emerged as a very big factor recently and was discussed endlessly.

In the context of USA elections what is most important for the entire world are the views and actual performance of leading candidates regarding peace, environment protection and justice at the world level. Only some aspects of peace issue such as Gaza get attention in the election debate but even here too in the context of Gaza the problem is that none of the two leading candidates are guided truely by the agenda of peace. Other important issues of world peace, disarmament, justice and environment protection just do not get the due space in the election debate. Foreign policy and related issues are generally discussed mainly in the context of the perceived narrow interests of the USA. The USA with close allies has caused more deaths in wars and conflicts than any other country, and increasingly a very large number of these have been innocent civilians. Proxy wars have also caused death and destruction on a colossal scale. More recently, previously drawn red lines relating to avoiding direct conflict with Russia have also been crossed although this was certainly and easily avoidable. These issue of very high concern for world peace do not get the due place in the election campaign here.

It hardly makes any sense to give too much importance to performance of top leaders on TV screen when it is well-known that the most important issues for the country and the world are being sidelined in the election campaign. However excessive attention to TV performances appears to be part of the wider system of emphasizing trivial issues so much that some of the most important issues are not just sidelined but even forgotten in the course of the election debate.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children and A Day in 2071.