The presidential elections in the United States have global significance, as globalization under the leadership of the U.S. puts those elections forward in the world as a whole. Two new situations make those elections much more attractive for world politics. First of all, a female candidate will, for the first time, compete in the presidential elections. Secondly, the Republicans' presidential candidate Donald Trump as a real estate brand has emerged as a sensational political figure.
In an international conference organized by the Police Academy in Antalya, a respected professor from the University of London made crucial observations in the session that I moderated. While he was talking about the incompetence of state powers in the face of global terror, he argued that one of the greatest problems with the West is the lack of strong world leadership that could have embraced the world as a whole. Indeed, due to that lack of leading statesmen in the West, the Western countries could not have found even their own national leaders, let alone an international one. As it is well known, one of the main reasons behind the fall of the Ottoman Empire was a stark lack of leading statesmen among the ruling classes (kaht-ı rical). Consequently, a full-scale war was needed to eventually deal with them and remove them.
With reference to the mutual accusations of presidential candidates, the presidential elections continue to appear at the level of a basic magazine program. If such discussions emerge in any other country, the rest of the world could have ignored the shallowness of the related elections. In this respect, it is meaningful for our present purpose to enumerate some of Trump's accusations directed against his presidential competitor:
- "While Barack Obama created Daish, Hillary Clinton will manage it."
- "We will put up a wall on the Mexican borders, which would be paid for by the Mexicans."
"We will not take Muslims into the U.S."
"Before attempting to put the world in order, we should focus on our internal affairs."
On the other hand, Clinton's political career did not begin in the present elections. Bill Clinton was the president of the U.S. for two terms, while Hillary Clinton serves as the secretary of state. For political leadership, Clinton's baggage is full of problems to such an extent that she gets into innumerous troubles even due to financial issues.
The ongoing elections have begun earlier than the former ones, while the U.S. media intentionally lifts the level of electoral competition, as they have learned how to make additional money from the ongoing elections. By heating the electoral debate, they aim at inciting the competition until the last day of the presidential elections.
The ongoing presidential competition easily exposes its dangerous and shallow level of politics in our age of communication. Through blackmail and eavesdropping, the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) destroyed the structure of the presidential council of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). They also aim at overthrowing the government through blackmail and law. Indeed, due to the abuse of the communication age as an instrument of political blackmailing, these topics will remain one of the most controversial subjects of methodology. Regarding the prospective results of the presidential elections, Clinton seems to have the upper hand, while Trump's potential for making a surprising turn back is yet to be seen. Especially his statements on women and television discussions continue to give Trump a hard time. For their individual attitude towards Turkey, I believe that the Republicans seem to turn back the traditional codes of the U.S. in the Middle East. Regarding the candidate of the Democrats, although Clinton seems to be a much more predictable leader, her emphasis on the PKK in their struggle against Daish demonstrates that their incompetent and hesitant Syrian policies derive not from Obama himself, but from the Democrats as a political party. All of these issues are yet to be seen, but the idiom "the pot calling the kettle black," continues to summarize the presidential elections of the U.S.
About the author
İhsan Aktaş is Chairman of the Board of GENAR Research Company. He is an academic at the Department of Communication at Istanbul Medipol University.
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