One-term US presidents… coming soon

I was once driving back home from a local Walmart. Near the end of the parking lot, there was a fast food chain restaurant. At the drive thru, I saw a car drive away fast indicating an angry driver because the restaurant staff took a bit longer to hand over the angry customer’s food. He drove away without executing the transaction. At the drive-thru window, the female attendant who was working threw a much bigger fit of rage. Throwing her hands up in the air, she cried out loudly, “this is America, people have no patience here.” This writer concurs.

A large chunk of the American population rushed to the ballot in 2016 not necessarily because they were impressed with Trump’s personality but because they wanted to ensure the defeat of Hillary Clinton. The distaste for her drove the desire to support the otherwise obnoxious man. Gone are the days when the American people voted for their favorite leader. The era of charismatic leaders sounds like a fairytale from a distant past. The same could be said for Biden. People were fed up with Trump and more importantly, those who sat through the 2016 election realised the mistake they had made by leaving it to their fellow voters to do the right thing. In order to avoid the repeat of 2016 and in order to defeat Trump, this time around they rushed to the ballot, braving the virus. For them, it didn’t matter what the name or record of the man running against Trump was.

Absent charisma and charm, when voters have to choose between the least favorable candidates, there are going to be consequences for the American democracy. The most vivid manifestation of that change would emerge in the presidential elections held every 4 years. Changing the horses mid-stream would become the norm. When an American president is elected not because he was charismatic, amazing, and mature but rather just to beat the other guy down, then the people have an insanely low level of patience for the president’s poor performance. The president doesn’t enjoy the love of the voters, he enjoys being the other guy, the guy running against the one the majority didn’t want anymore. A president elected by the process of elimination would be eliminated in the next elimination opportunity: the election.

Globally, public patience has declined everywhere. No wonder book reading has declined and video clips of more than a minute have a hard time generating any audience on the internet because people have a ridiculously short attention span. Stock markets used to remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Enter cryptocurrencies, the market is open 24/7, 365 days a year. You can witness the rise or fall of your fortune within minutes if not seconds. One minute you’d be a millionaire and the next you might have to borrow for food. Fast results feed the impatience, which has become the global public mood. And this global impatience pandemic drives the fast food-ising, if you will, of democracy.

In the future, President Trump might be remembered less as a twice-impeached president and more as a once-elected one whose one term unleashed a norm of one-term presidencies. Since President Reagan, there has been only one one-term president: George Bush Sr. Biden might be the next in line. Perhaps that is how it should be for the better because politicians must prove their worth through performance instead of the magic their personalities have on people. Nevertheless, the absence of charisma and greatness of a leader coupled with revenge voting by the voters, produce disappointment in the minds of the people. They say that people gamble more when they are disappointed, desperate, and jobless. An electorate made of those ingredients would surely gamble more with their democracy by replacing one president with another in the first opportunity they’d get. Impatience will drive whatever is left of democracy.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2022.

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