Public politics in general, and the “debate” genre in particular, are not about plans, ideas, and deciding the future of the country. They are more like the “Club of the Cheerful and Sharp-Witted” (KVN humor show) where it is important for the audience to see who will have the best comebacks. In that sense, the first Biden-Trump debate was pure KVN, with the difference being that the participants of the Soviet (Russian) TV show were young, whereas in this contest, 81- and 77-year-old men were speaking. (Let me remind you, by the way, that Levon Ter-Petrosyan refused to participate in the presidential race in 2013, citing the fact that he was… 68 years old).
The United States is an established democracy. In this context, it means three things:
- The chances of the two candidates nominated by the economic and political elite are approximately the same. Can you imagine Putin debating with Kharitonov?
- Possible wrong decisions by the president have many “filters”; there is a mechanism of checks and balances in the form of Congress and the judiciary.
- US state interests do not depend on the will of the president. In particular, it is excluded that the United States will not continue its support for Israel and Ukraine regardless of the election outcome. Of course, there may be certain changes in the “shades” of foreign and, more so, domestic policy.
The rest, as I said, is more like a show meant to occupy the public. Trump was certainly more convincing in the last debate. He spoke much more confidently and misrepresented reality more often (according to the New York Times fact-checking team). It is well known that lying is the key to success in today’s post-truth era. (See the previous editorial).
Biden, on the other hand, spoke with a “cold voice,” mumbled, and at one point, it seemed he lost his train of thought. So, according to the results of the first debate, Trump’s chances seem better. To that, I think, we should add the general trend observed in the West, which favors “right,” conservative values, which the given presidential candidate supports.
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Who will win in the end is not so important for us Armenians. For example, in all cases, high-ranking US officials will praise Pashinyan as a “great democrat” because the Prime Minister of Armenia and his entourage make anti-Russian statements from time to time, and therefore, it is in the interests of the US state.
But the fact of the elections itself is important for us. Let’s remember that Azerbaijan attacked us last time when the United States was in a pre-election frenzy.
Aram Abrahamyan
