Why “The New Leader of the Free World” Can’t Exist in America

Full Disclosure: this really isn’t about Jacinda Ardern. At all. It’s about throwing away context, and being more aware of how media and journalism is trying to shape “the new normal” — and to what ends.

But where do I even begin? I feel the most honest answer is indeed with Jacinda Ardern. For starters, who is she and what brought her up? Chances are, if you’re reading this specific article, you already know — and the fact that I can even wager that bet in confidence is part of a deeper issue here. But on the off-chance you don’t know, she’s a young woman and a politician — specifically, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, a country that is predominantly if not overwhelmingly white, has had a history of institutionalized racism including against indigenous people and naturally is one of the first countries to recover from COVID-19.

But again, you probably already knew that because you likely saw one of the most heavily promoted features of this very platform, Medium, as of today (June 1). In fact, again as of today, it’s one of two feature articles from the same author, umair haque (albeit the second one is effectively a “rerun”). The fact that a single author has received especially preferential and unbalanced promotion from Medium during the entire duration of the pandemic might seem instinctively concerning — because it should be, regardless of the author’s leanings and motivations (for the record, I do believe umair haque is genuinely altruistically motivated — more or less — and we share very close if not virtually perfectly overlapping political and economic beliefs, but bias runs deeper than merely agreeing or disagreeing with a political agenda or indeed the actual words or authors behind them).

Next, I should start with who umair haque himself actually is. I’m not one for “doxxing” or even glorified cyberstalking, especially for the sake of a Medium article of my own, so let’s stick with what’s apparent in his own writings here on Medium, his Amazon.com profile and the laziest resource of them all, Wikipedia. The point being, he is obviously possessing a raw, enviable intelligence and eloquence. He’s likely living outside of the United States, or at least that’s the impression his own writings on this platform and the scant, sure-we’ll-take-it, I’m-surprised-he-even-on-Wikipedia smattering of letters on his Wikipedia page imply. He’s also socially and economically conscionable, a particular point I not only admire but seek to aspire to on his level.

…or rather, I very much believe he thinks he’s socially and economically conscionable, or at least more than he actually is. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still very much admirable, and very much a Progressive in the best intent of what that label actually means or should mean, not the one the right-wing tries to enforce…but it’s also clear that, as Wikipedia declares, he comes from a background already imbued with privilege and intellectual and educational opportunities. It’s easy to write about socio-economic issues from a position of especial privilege (trust me, ask me how I know). It becomes even easier when doing so potentially means a sizable payday, for relatively little effort. Especially compared to people who are required to work critical occupations during the COVID-19 pandemic (again, refer to COVID-19 is 21st Century Smallpox linked earlier).

I should then follow up with my own political and socio-economic beliefs, although they’re likely evidently clear by now. I don’t label myself as a Progressive, but only because I believe self-labels are dangerous and would rather openly say that I wish to aspire to the Progressive ideals of socio-economic justice; and that I came to this conclusion after decades of contrary opinion and being forced to conclude that the Progressive ideal is a choice out of moral necessity. To choose otherwise is to be openly immoral.

In fact, I think that’s a fair issue at the heart of the United States and the issue of Trump right now. Which segues into….

…Why the “New Leader of the Free World” Can’t Exist in America. Another reason why I think umair is residing outside of the United States is reading between the lines — frankly, he’s got the context of the United States itself all wrong. Or rather, it’s completely absent, which arguably is even worse.

Jacinda Ardern. The new leader of the free world. Isn’t she fast becoming something like that to many of those, I suppose, who are still sane and thoughtful people? People — at least the sane ones — also thought this of Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau back in 2016 — and still do, if not even moreso now.

But there is something to be said of being a world power or even a regional power. Canada, for example, is a legitimate regional power, despite being the “hat” of an equally legitimate world power, one of only three — four or five, if we’re generous and count emerging or likely emerging ones. And if we’re going by a pre-COVID-19 world. But it’s highly unlikely New Zealand is capable of being a regional power, let alone a true global power on the geopolitical stage, even with “help” from COVID-19. For one, raw geography and population count. India, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union/Russia and to a lesser extent Brazil prove that having a population base counts for something. The Soviet Union/Russia doesn’t even have all that great of a population base to begin with — but far larger than New Zealand’s, and perhaps more importantly, a vast resource-rich geography to make up for any population shortfalls. New Zealand is resource-rich, but not to the extent to wield true regional influence, especially with a truly vast nation, indeed a literal national continent, Australia, as a neighbor. Japan is a closer model for what to look for in a nation capable of punching far beyond its apparent weight class — like New Zealand, it’s a relatively isolated island nation. Like New Zealand, it too also has a history of institutionalized racism against indigenous peoples — as well as outright external genocide very closely mirroring its closest WWII ally, Nazi Germany (and as someone of at least partial actual Japanese ancestry, albeit distant if not very distant, as well as being of the people the Japanese victimized during the war, and above all owes his literal existence in turn to the existence of Japan and the Japanese people, it’s ok for me to point this out in the name of context without having it devolve into boxing the Japanese into a stereotyped thick-glasses wearing, broken-English speaking, jobs-stealing perpetual enemy deserving of nuclear attack as divine pittance and shame because Pearl Harbor must be equally perpetually avenged). Speaking of which, actually, Japan has also managed to build from virtually nothing starting with major contact and trading with the West in the 1850s, just before the American Civil War — and again, from nothing, in the immediate aftermath of WWII, again mirroring the “German Miracle” if not outright eclipsing it.

So why can’t New Zealand do this? Because raw population matters. Japan simply put, has a whole lot of people. So does its neighbor South Korea, which is also a very prominent global economic power, with a lot of history mirroring Japan and for that matter Germany, the two of which had traditionally maintained strong postwar socio-economic ties. And, oh yeah, both of those countries have also mirrored New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery, if not being ahead of it. New Zealand, meanwhile, has a population a mere fraction of any of those nations — infact it has around a million people fewer than my current state of residence, Colorado which if anything has a reputation of being a somewhat sporadically populated, rural state (save for the urban centers of Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs which indeed account for the vast majority of that population).

Military power projection also counts for something. Japan, despite being addled by restrictions dating back to the ramifications of WWII’s conclusion, still has one of the most powerful navies in the world, and arguably by ship-to-ship comparison is more advanced than even that of the United States. South Korea has one of the few navies that can truly rival it, if not already having a navy even more powerful. Again, when comparing equivalent vessels, both navies have ships that don’t just match their US Navy counterparts but exceed them — not just in terms of technological sophistication but in raw size and even firepower. And we’re not talking about small vessels meant for patrol duties or policing, but very large naval ships specifically designed to shoot down nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles and even orbiting satellites. New Zealand, meanwhile, all but completely disbanded its Air Force. In the context of New Zealand’s geopolitical and strategic needs, this was indeed a wise move that allows them to better concentrate on more humanitarian efforts as well as to devote more resources domestically , to things like education, social services and indeed the very services that allowed them to weather COVID-19 — but it also virtually completely rules out New Zealand becoming a true influence, even at a regional level.

Now, it’s possible umair haque doesn’t mean for Ardern or New Zealand to become a world leader literally. Except I think it’s clear that’s exactly what he means. There simply isn’t any alternative interpretation — except for Ardern to become a world leader strictly by example. But the aforementioned Justin Trudeau already is a world leader by example, and how many have bothered to follow his example, aside from those who already have, those of whom he had been following their example? For that matter, why Ardern specifically as opposed to say, Germany’s Angela Merkel, a leader who isn’t only recognized as a forefront leader in the COVID-19 pandemic, as already mentioned, but whom herself is a scientist and actually leads a regional, globally influential power with a sizable population base?

Ardern is, objectively, not unique and it would be fair to say the fixation upon her is odd if not outright bizarre. She’s not unique in leading her nation out of the COVID-19 pandemic — Germany matched New Zealand, and South Korea outright beat them. New Zealand doesn’t have the population base to truly exert regional influence, let alone global. In fact their small, spare population was if anything an unfair advantage in helping to ensure social distancing and stay-at-home orders were successful. Vast spaces to roam around in and isolation to begin with aren’t just naturally conductive towards social distancing and stay-at-home, but are indications of a disparate privilege gap that unfairly assist people during these conditions, because overwhelmingly the type of person who has these conditions to benefit from in the first place are white, middle class and particularly wealthy compared to the rest of the global population and that this very much applies to New Zealand (yet again ref. to COVID-19 is 21st Century Smallpox linked earlier).

Jacinda is like the anti-Donald. This statement is at once pointless and completely blind to the larger context that ails the United States; the context that created Donald in the first place. From an international context, this has little meaning; the international community cannot appoint or remove Donald Trump from power short of starting WWIII, and stating anything else is merely stating the obvious, so what’s the point? Besides, Donald Trump is an aberration, an outlier, when comparing actual democracies. So to say that Jacinda is the anti-Donald is to say that Republicans have a statistically demonstrated tendency to be racist — what’s the point of celebrating something that isn’t just tautological in nature but isn’t even statistically unique — the statistical norm, in fact? The vast majority of truly democratically-elected world leaders are the anti-Donald. So what makes Jacinda unique? Is umair in fact merely showing a personal bias? I’m not the only one who doesn’t think Jacinda is infact anything truly special.

And there’s the issue of Trump not exactly being unique on the world stage when more than just “democratically” elected leaders are concerned. umair himself notes this — there’s significant commonality between Trump and Putin, Xi and other strongarm dictators aside from the fact that Trump (and Putin) have been “democratically” elected. Guess what else these leaders have in common? Guess what’s actually happening in the United States now?

But again, this is missing a clear context. As I’ve said time and time before, context is everything, and corporate and political interests are vested in sweeping over that context and otherwise true Progressives are happy to play along, often due to alarming blindness. The Republican Party has managed to effect staggering damage control through this, by making President Donald Trump himself the ultimate scapegoat and with almost none of us being any the wiser.

Donald Trump isn’t the problem, the entire Republican Party is. The Republican Party didn’t sell its soul to Donald Trump, Donald Trump, a man almost lacking in actual beliefs to begin with, merely molded himself to the Republican Party ideal for the sake of votes. Donald Trump isn’t an extreme outlier of the Republican Party; Donald Trump is a manifestation of the Republican Mainstream itself. We shouldn’t be talking about the anti-Donald, we should be talking about the anti-Republican Party. Unfortunately there’s serious question among the actual American people as to what the “anti-Republican Party” is. Theoretically it’s the Democratic Party, naturally, but that party itself has significant issues, at time being outright anti-Progressive.

America couldn’t possibly have done what New Zealand did. That’s precisely the problem. That’s the problem the Republican Party itself, not just Donald Trump, represents. The “conventional wisdom” will tell you that it’s simply a problem of raw mathematics: we have a larger population, thus it’s simply mathematically harder to test everyone. And there is legitimacy to that. But the larger issue is one that’s institutional; one that was left by the man Trump is desperately trying to emulate, Ronald Reagan, and the one we should truly be villainizing in hindsight for he supplied the literal template for Trump to follow straight into power. The man who had left the template that the entire Republican Party had been slavishly following ever since. A template Reagan merely borrowed from American history itself.

Waxing poetic about what smaller, particularly privileged predominantly white nations did right almost by accident is useless without understanding the larger context of what happened, especially when you 1.) make blind assumptions about that context from afar or 2.) completely ignore the context entirely. To do so is borderline intellectually dishonest at best, if not what amounts to a mere exercise in intellectual self-congratulatory masturbation (and for clicks, on top of that). The protests over the death of George Floyd, a man made a martyr over simply existing, should be proof enough of that; of how thoroughly entrenched a powerful force against the will of the people is in the United States, and even an infinite amount of proselytizing will find it very hard to change that especially when such proselytizing finds itself already preaching to the choir.

Infact I argue that such ignorance of context is just as dangerous as these entrenched anti-people forces themselves, for it ultimately serves no purpose than to blind people from the solutions that actually need to be effected. Again, this is bigger than merely the removal of Trump; it requires the removal of an entire political party.

And, for all of umair haque’s raw, legitimately brilliant intelligence, insight and intentions, we need to ask, how does Medium as a platform benefiting from this? Is there a particular reason why they’re shoving his articles up to the very top, in fact even multiple articles at a time?

Call me paranoid, but particularly during the “age of coronavirus” I feel my paranoia is particularly and acutely justified. Almost immediately, large corporations and political interests have infact seized upon the pandemic to affect economic advantages that ultimately widen the wealth gap significantly, and social media platforms have been at the absolute forefront of this, practically acting as the vanguard of continuing the old ways of capitalism. Which is all the more reason why we need to evaluate everything not just objectively, but in context, lest we merely wonder why we keep ending up in the same exact damn situation time and time and time again.

I would also be remiss in not mentioning that the United States does indeed have their own Jacinda, several infact: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Ilhan Omar; Kamala Harris; even Elizabeth Warren and yes, Bernie Sanders. Thanks to these people, their supporters and indeed Women, Gay and Trans People and People of Color, it is possible to have our own “New Leader of the Free World” right here in the United States. Voting for them would actually effect real change away from this dystopian nightmare. But only if we actually vote for them.

Which is why it’s so vitally important to remember that, practice actual voting power and focus away from the continued propping of up Trump as a convenient boogeyman scapegoat allowing the Republican Party as a whole to be the true mastermind of these perpetuating disasters.