Most Americans realize that the choice they have to make is not optimal: on the one hand, they face Kamala Harris, capable of changing their view of problems, and on the other Donald Trump, who has lost energy compared to his first term, says Russian international analyst Fyodor Lukanov.
The presidential race in the United States proved edgy and exhausting, but very poor in content because of images and stamps instead of ideas,
says editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, and chairman of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Fyodor Lukanov.
“The content of the campaign was poor:
images and clichés instead of ideas. Toward the end, everything was reduced to crude personal attacks. Most observers, and even participants, realize that both candidates are,
to put it mildly, not
optimal", the expert notes.
The “lucky ticket” that Kamala Harris couldn't handle
Lukanov points out that the Democratic candidate has had some unmemorable moments as vice president, and that the core of her campaign has been her attempts to convince the public that she has
“untapped potential”. She believes Harris unexpectedly received a “lucky ticket,” which she had difficulty managing.
"It did not go well at all. It was striking that the candidate was acting
on instructions, and her spontaneous reaction, apart from the infectious laughter, was not very good. Moreover,
the willingness to diametrically change her views on key issues did not make her look solid, although the tactical calculus is clear,” the journalist notes.
At the same time, he notes that Harris, whom no one had taken into account, was able to consolidate the influential circles of the Democratic Party. “They got involved in the process, not so much out of sympathy for her, but
out of fear of Trump,” concludes Lukanov.
Donald Trump lost his “sensational novelty.”
Speaking of the Republican candidate, he stresses that Trump's inherent narcissism, previously compensated by a kind of lightness and stiltedness, is now causing an
“oppressive impression”.
In the expert's opinion, the expectations that the former president would become more respectable with the acquired experience, adopting the image of a wise statesman,
were not justified. Lukanov believes that the Republican “has lost his sense of sensational novelty and does not exude energy as he did 8 years ago”.
However, he notes that Trump now personifies his party and defines its direction, even though he once seemed “an eccentric weirdo whose antics made the Republican ‘establishment’ cringe.”
Between two poles
Lukanov notes that, if you simplify the description, Americans have to choose between “liberal-globalists” and “national-patriots.”
“There will not be a linear movement, because the country is huge, there are many contradictory factors, society is complex, it
does not walk in formation to order”, he points out.
Therefore, it is important to take into account the ideological and political set that will prevail after these elections, concludes the expert.
