The Gruppo Esponenti Italiani, which defines itself as “a forum dedicated to the advancement of Italian business, science, and culture in the United States,” hosted journalist Gerard Baker for an interview and Q&A on the topic of the upcoming presidential elections. Currently the Editor at Large for the Wall Street Journal and host of a weekly program on Fox Business Channel, Baker initially pursued a career in financial analysis with the Bank of England and Lloyds Bank before delving into journalism, with stints at The Financial Times, The Times of London, and the BBC.
Baker’s opinion on the candidates in the upcoming presidential election was not flattering to either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, as he invoked Kissinger’s famous line about the Iran-Iraq war and applied it to them: “It’s a pity they can’t both lose.” He cited polling showing that the American people, by large margins, are dissatisfied with current leadership and believe that the country is on the wrong track. Baker suggested that in such a context, the goal for each candidate is clear: “how can you run away from having been the incumbent?” He then went on to admit that Harris was doing “a reasonably good job” in this regard relative to her opponent, despite his overall disappointment with both candidates.
This line of discussion naturally begged the question of why our political system appears unable to produce good candidates, to which Baker confessed his “astonishment” at the “paucity of American leadership.” He speculated that “successful, bright people” go into business rather than politics due to negative partisanship that has “turned good people away,” transforming political leadership into a realm where “AOC and Marjorie Taylor Greene types dominate.”
Asked what was the source of all this political malaise during the Q&A, Baker declared that “people have no trust” in leadership and institutions, pointing to two major causes. First is the inflation that has increased the economic pressure on Americans over the last four years, although he pointed out that prices are beginning to stabilize more recently, and the recent interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve is likely to buttress that improvement. As for the second, he highlighted a longstanding lack of “accountability for serious crises” over the last two decades – from the 2003 invasion of Iraq, to the Great Recession in 2008, to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such is the central thesis of his 2023 book on American politics, American Breakdown: Why We No Longer Trust Our Leaders and Institutions and How We Can Rebuild Confidence.
With a presidential election less than two months away, it remains to be seen what sort of accountability, if any, the American people can extract from their leaders.
