The world we live in is currently facing many challenges ranging from a pandemic, poverty, ignorance, and conflict to climate change, decreasing social solidarity, and globalized economies that are increasingly polarized by income, wealth, stabilization, and mass immigration. A scarcity of great leaders today has intensified the severity of world problems; therefore, we need a leader who is mentally sound, emotionally balanced, physically healthy, socially adjusted, and spiritually alive to deal with global issues. But it is sad to say, no such leader has emerged, so that we live in a world without strong leadership. Our world is in desperate need of principled, strong leaders who base every decision on their values. We have a world divided on many fronts but a paucity of leaders to handle them. Since the end of World War II, the US traditionally led the world, gaining first and foremost the description of “global leadership,” meaning that the United States tended to be the first or most important country for identifying or framing international issues, taking actions to address those issues, setting an example for other countries to follow, organizing and implementing multilateral efforts to address international issues, and enforcing international rules and normatives. But, today this is no longer true because America has lost its moral compass and no longer has the ability to uphold the American values, so that in the face of resistance, it counters with appeasement. For the four years of the Trump Presidency, America spent much of its energy on whether Russia meddled in the US elections, thereby promoting Russia and President Putin while denigrating America‘s leadership role in the world. The more the parties and the media talked about Russia‘s interference in the voting process, the more America lost its luster.
When the new President formally introduced his cabinet to the public, President Biden proudly declared that this is first time in American history that the cabinet looks like America. Examining the actual appointments of President Biden shows that in general these assignments are not based on merit or qualifications but usually on gender, color of skin, race, and ethnicity. Thus, the Biden’s team may look like America but does not think like America; in fact, it is anti-America and its values. At home Democrats and Leftists are playing the race card, identity politics, and them-us divisions that in turn weakens America’s hand abroad. Americans continue to fight against each other resulting from a condition Americans brought upon themselves. Instead of unity, the government promotes disunity, and, as a result, it exploits the current conditions and generates distrust in the American people.
Undoubtably, a shifting global order is transferring the United States, once widely considered as the main super power, to one seen retreating from the international organization it has led for years. While China appears to be filling the gaps and challenging the United States’ dominance on several fronts, such as in finance, technology, and military matters, this has led to other countries having to choose between America and China.
Now, to defeat the world’s enemies in order to liberate the world from chaos and to inculcate order, law, peace and justice, we need an upright leader with mental strength, emotional stability, physical well-being, social adjustment, and spiritual vigor to deal with global crises. But does President Joe Biden fit those qualification? Domestically, many Americans distrust leaders as never before in recent history. During this times of crisis that both the world and America are going through, President Joe Biden is not capable of leading the divided world or the US because his mental and physical health seem to be declining and his policies appear to be clumsy and too ideological, which enrages the majority of people.
Many will be surprised if he is able to finish his term. Videos showing President Biden stumbling three times and then falling while boarding the Presidential plane have prompted fresh questions about his health. But the White House says the wind is to blame for the newly elected President’s triple fall on the stairs of Air Force One. This is not a joke anymore. A leader of the free world needs to be physically fit and mentally acute to address every challenge, especially in a divided world. But the main leftist media did not focus too much on this important issue, and the greatest power of the media is the power to ignore and suppress information.
As a global and more interdependent “village,” nations need a strong leader to command affairs and to return the overarching system to what in international relations is called a liberal world order. A liberal world order is global and rule-based with structured relationships that promote global cooperation. The world currently faces challenges: the global economy is in serious crisis, wars and ethnic violence are becoming more common and dangerous, the planet is warming much faster than ever before, the Coronavirus has taken millions of lives and caused millions more to lose their jobs, and little realistic hope dares to suggest that the pandemic will end soon. A good leader is the key to lead the chaotic world out of the crisis.
Conflict within and between nations is a major contributor to poverty. Under the conditions of conflict there is no job creation but instead there are starvation, injuries, death, destruction, dislocation, and increase of poverty, as we see in some parts of Africa, Myanmar, Syria, and Afghanistan, among other nations. Leaders who have committed to something bigger than themselves, such a just, more inclusive world where every person can live with dignity and opportunity, have the courage to make that vision a reality. The only ones who decide whether a leader is great or not are their followers. But, every follower should trust in and have hope and inspiration incited by their leaders because of their vision and courage to bring it about.
A government exists to establish justice and public order. Justice is the religion of the government. We cannot speak of government where justice and order do not exist. Politics is the art of managing a nation’s affairs in ways that please God, who has ordained the nation’s authority, and that please the people. As long as a government protects people from evil and defends them from their enemies, it will go a long way in serving its function. But what is happening today appears that many leaders neither please God nor the people but rather only their corrupt allies, friends, and families.
President Joe Biden is neither capable of handling domestic or international issues because he is physically, emotionally, and mentally very weak. It remains to be seen if America, divided against itself, can endure. A majority find President Biden’s policies too ideological bent. In short, many Americans do not trust that President Biden and his team reflect the country’s values. Further, his honeymoon with the left media will end soon. As a tool of the left liberals and the big tech sector, he will help if these forces wish to loot and destroy the lives of America people for profit. President Biden who struggles to handle a press briefing or climb the stairs is not up to the job. The biased left media and Trump-hatred conjured up a win for him, but he is incompetent and his rapidly declining mental state cannot effectively perform the most difficult job on earth, the President of the United States and, tentatively, the leader of the free world.
Biden’s Vice President choice shows that he has lost touch with reality in selecting the recipient to be the first African-American and the first female. Racial hatred and identity politics have been a means for elite Democrats to maintain power. Devolutions of these tensions would unite people and bring about a major social change. President Trump did not divide America, but he allowed the public to see the reality of corrupt leaders because he refused to be a traditional politician and hide or obscure real social issues in the country. President Trump did not harm African Americans, and his policies did not target law biding legal residents or American citizens of the United States.
Identify politics is always played by the leftist Democrat party to increase their power, but in truth they never care about the poor people, explicitly demonstrated when they make the poor depend on them. President Biden and his Vice President Harris do not care about the underprivileged in general, but they ticket African Americans’ way to success with the race card. I have no faith in President Joe Biden or his Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the divided world. The President’s crazy obsession with homosexuality has caused him to threaten American society and loyal allies to compromise their religious values and age old creeds to appease his belief in transgenderism and other confusing sexuality based on false science. Basically, President Biden his wandered from the way and, thus, cannot give directions to others. He incurred some international respect for bringing the United States back into some treaties that President Trump exited and tried to insult the America First agenda as well as President Trump’s handling of the pandemic, but that respect will be short-lived.
If there was going to be true leadership, it would need to come from the US. I still believe America is globally dominant, with its tech firms growing stronger during the corona virus pandemic, the US dollar’s role as the main currency, and the strength of the American banks, but because of a lack of a good leader, America lacks the interest to lead. A world without a leader maybe does not hurt America specifically, but the division at home hurts the nation and weakens its hand abroad. Also, the leaderless world may hurt some other countries, particularly fragile ones.
At this point, no leader in America seems capable of leading the divided world especially when we see the big tech companies, not the ballot box or officially elected representative, but their true elite power that dominates the United States of America. Leadership and popularity do not correlate. Current public opinion sheds no light on the ability of a leader. Rather, George W. Bush said, “I have a different definition of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.” President Biden’s health and his leadership are failing, but more to the point, the world is becoming more divided because of failed, corrupt, divisive demagogues and with no moral and intelligent visionary in sight.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
