![]() This constant brawling and an itch for confrontation have necessarily deprived the President of an aura of respectability.ĭemocracies look for a sense of moral authenticity and gravitas in their leaders there is an implicit need to have confidence in their leaders and to believe that they are being led by an exemplary personality of virtuosity and moral lustre. The last hundred days have seen unhappy departures from good presidential manners. Consequently, the others keep snipping at his heels and, he is happy to bark back. Presidential effectiveness invariably depends on the White House’s ability to work with different groups, build up consensus, lead a coalition almost on every issue despite his self-belief as a wonderful deal-maker, Trump has yet to demonstrate the skills and the attitudes needed to work with other institutional players in Washington. ![]() And, he has lived up the part, using Twitter as a knuckle-duster, throwing 140-letter punches at rivals at home and abroad.Īuthority in Washington, as per the American constitutional arrangements, is a divided proposition. A distinct sense of shoddiness emanates from the fact that unlike his predecessor, who was often suspected of being too professorial, Donald Trump has positioned himself as a street brawler. ![]() Nobody has yet accused Trump of eloquence. The Americans’ sense of disappointment can be traced to the simple fact that these last eight years the United States and the world had got used to a substantive, and at times searing, presidential rhetoric. He has, in fact, not passed up any chance to throw a brick through his rivals’ glass window. On his part, the cantankerous and quarrelsome Trump is not the one to turn the other cheek. Washington’s in-crowd resents him, as it resents anyone who is seen as an outsider, just as it had scorned the Jimmy Carters and the Bill Clintons. The first hundred days have been full of confrontation and cock-ups. Those who did not vote for him thought they had a right to deny him the kind of honeymoon the Presidents are normally granted. Though Donald Trump won the Presidency in November 2016 he did not win the popular vote. ![]() The curative power of democracy has had its impact. Has he dismantled and destroyed the United States as his detractors feared or, has he created the kind of global chaos that the world capitals had apprehended? Perhaps the first hundred days may be too short a period to allow any definitive conclusions, but it is feasible to believe that the fears of an American meltdown were vastly exaggerated. Donald Trump assumed charge on January 20th this year. When on November 8 last year he got himself elected to the office of President of the United States, the rest of the world wondered how could have the Americans opted for this man how could America - the land of Harvard and Yale, Princeton and MIT, the New York Times, Washington Post, the New Yorker - elect a man who is gratuitously boorish, determinedly anti-intellectual, and just a greedy businessman, with no record whatsoever of any public service? Well, democracies do sometimes produce false and flawed results. TOMORROW will be Donald Trump’s 100th day in the White House. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |