Colette Potter ‘26
Opinions Editor
I was recently watching The West Wing and was struck by how competent – perhaps even brilliant – the president character (President Bartlett) is supposed to be. And it also struck me that I don’t know if we have had a truly brilliant president for a long time.
Here are my findings: we have an ever-increasing national debt which is continuing in peacetime and in times of relative economic prosperity. We have the highest military spending in the world, but somehow are not effective enough to produce naval ships at nearly the same rate as China – a problem that is multiplied when our aging fleet is also taken into account. We have affordability issues, little to no public transit beyond large metro areas, and a country that somehow still has homelessness, widespread hunger, and a mass shooting crisis. These are not new problems but rather issues that have plagued the U.S. since the turn of the century, and I think we desperately need someone with a vision – a brilliant vision – to snap us out of the pattern of underperformance and mediocrity that we have been stuck in.
I think a large part of this frustration is due to the fact that I think there are many brilliant Americans. We have the talent! People from around the world flock to the U.S. to study at our esteemed universities and contribute to our technological might. Yet, I don’t see this represented within our electorate. I think we are far too partisan, and I question the effectiveness of all of our 21st century presidents. The second President Bush pushed Americans into a 20-year Middle Eastern conflict with very few results. Obama and Trump in his first term failed to pull American troops from Afghanistan, and Biden did not have a successful or well-planned end to the conflict (though I do commend him for finally cutting the cord). This is a prime example of needing effective leadership: how much money did we sink into Iraq and Afghanistan? Was there truly a point? I think we caused more disruption and resentment for Western involvement than goodwill (though I do have more mixed feelings when it comes to the treatment of women by the Taliban, and would argue that American involvement was much more of a definite “good” in that instance).
I think there is a lack of vision – or good vision – for the United States. President Trump in his second term certainly has somewhat of a vision (Project 2025), but I personally think he is overstepping American rights and I am concerned by his cruel treatment of migrants and his trampling of free speech, our most sacred American belief. I understand all leadership is flawed, and I think some recent presidents have done a better job than others, but I can’t say I have found any of them truly brilliant. Bush was blinded by revenge, Obama did not have strong, smart foreign policy (chemical weapons in Syria, annexation of Crimea, Libya…), and I find Trump to be highly wanting in terms of any moral compass. And well Biden, of course, was too old, and had too much hubris to let the presidential power go after one term. Perhaps it is easier to be less critical of presidents from decades ago, but I think Carter was a sort of model president, ideally fitting the Roman ideal of a farmer-turned leader, who humbly returned to their role post power. Reagan, though I disagree with many of his policies, had the Berlin Wall speech and is credited for steering US leadership in a post-Soviet world. Clinton had our last budget surplus. I can’t say that our 21st century presidents, though I do have widely differing opinions on which were the better of the bunch, quite match up. Where is the political brilliance? The speeches that will live in American memory? The “Tear Down This Wall” or “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” quality ideas or policy. I think they are perhaps absent… and I think if we want to discuss a possible decline within the US, we have to talk about the decline in the presidential quality, effective (bipartisan!) legislation, and general political brilliance.
I suppose it could be argued that had blurred the flaws of past presidents – Nixon, Johnson, and Jackson were certainly not models of excellence. However, I would argue that much of the mediocrity we see today is a result of the American electorate. I think that, since 2016, many Americans have felt there is no stellar option on the ballot – and I think that has some truth to it. Is that a result of the two party system or electoral college? Perhaps. But it is perhaps because we have lost a need for respectability and morality within our politics, ignoring actions that would have blacklisted politicians of years past, not creating enough Congressional checks on the executive branch, and allowing for corporations to have a larger say in our elections than they deserve. I don’t want a president over the age of 80, or without a vision and plan to execute it. I want someone brilliant – a legal mastermind, a fierce defender of our American values and Constitution, someone without the possibility of cognitive decline. Is brilliance so much to ask if the US is supposed to be “exceptional” – or must we continue to accept varying degrees of disappointment and mediocrity?
Featured image courtesy of HBO Max
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