Biden, Trump self-impose narrow cultural perceptions
I voted for neither President Donald Trump nor former Vice President Joe Biden this election.
After listening to their discourse, I realized even though they both have college degrees, their perspective of the U.S. within the framework of the global community is disheartening. Neither one speaks a foreign language, nor does their discourse, like most American politicians, show any worldly cultural knowledge or deep thinking when addressing issues like immigration.
I would assume any college graduate was exposed to some of the classical readings of Socrates, Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Cervantes, for example, and the accounts of Hernán Cortés in Mexico, Francisco Pizarro in Peru, Latin American dictators and other worldly historical narratives.
Although I do not know what Biden or Trump have read, I would expect a presidential candidate to discuss in more depth the immigration issues pertaining to Mexico, for example. A brief understanding of the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz from 1876-1911 and the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 would be a beginning. A history of dictatorships in Mexico, Central America and Latin America have bred corruption and social inequality from the 16th century to the present. This is the main reason people from these Spanish-speaking countries come to the U.S.
Politicians discuss the wall, detention centers and the separation of families, but they do not address the real issues of corruption, violence and drug trafficking in those countries. I would think that a college-educated presidential candidate would have acquired some knowledge about these issues from reading, speaking a foreign language and traveling.
Just imagine an American presidential contender enjoying a café au lait at a patisserie on the Champs-Élysées while speaking to folks in French about their philosophy of life and government. Or what if a candidate visited the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid and speculated on the paintings of El Greco and Diego Velázquez in Spanish as they hypothesized about the meaning of Velázquez including a self-portrait in the canvas with the royal Spanish family (“Las Meninas”)?
And who knows? Maybe they have done such things. But I get the impression they have not and that their inability to speak another language to gain the respect of others while showing some cultural appreciation is lacking.
On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron speaks French and English, along with some German, Mandarin and Italian. Speaking other languages with an awareness of other cultures can boost presidents when addressing key issues on the economy, health care, immigration, crime, racism and other focal points of one’s platform. But, obviously, it is not the only tool necessary for political leaders.
The Spanish thinker José Ortega y Gasset wrote the book “What Is Philosphy?” After perusing it, I stumbled on this idea: “When the man who has cultivated physical exercise reaches fifty, he tends to abandon such exercises and to take his ease. If he lets himself do this, he is lost.”
Trump and Biden have abandoned the exercise of thought within the context of weaving the gravitational pull of intellectual curiosity (other cultures and languages) in their discourse to the American people. Newton proved that a ball will fall to the ground once it is tossed in the air. Our political system will fail and discord among Republicans and Democrats will continue to dispel venom when leaders and political members do not understand the connection between thought and cultural understanding.
With a tenet rooted in a cultural and introspective acknowledgment of America within the context of its cognizance for all countries of the world and their heritages, American leaders in the future will be in a better position to address racism, economic development, climate control, immigration and the multitude of other issues affecting the U.S. and our global community. American society has been deficient in producing world-class leaders, but we should be hopeful that we can learn from our weaknesses to continue this Socratic dialogue for contemplating the necessary requirements for potential presidential candidates hereafter to lead our democracy.