It is a truth universally acknowledged, or at least it should be, that the American political class has descended into a spectacle of schoolyard name-calling that would embarrass a Victorian street urchin. President Joe Biden, a man whose political career spans half a century, recently graced a fundraiser with his presence and, in a moment of what passes for wit in the modern White House, labelled his predecessor a ‘loser’. The remark, delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, has been met with predictable howls from the Trump camp and gleeful coverage from the chattering classes.
Let us pause to reflect on the sheer intellectual bankruptcy this represents. Here we have the leader of the free world, the man who commands the largest military in human history, stooping to the level of a Twitter troll. One is reminded of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, where the emperors of Rome traded insults and engaged in petty squabbles while the barbarians gathered at the gates. The comparison is apt, if perhaps too generous to the current occupants of the American executive.
The United Kingdom, for all its own political woes, has at least maintained a veneer of civility that our American cousins seem to have abandoned entirely. Our Prime Ministers, whether one agrees with them or not, tend to conduct their disputes with a certain rhetorical decorum. Churchill did not call Attlee a nincompoop in public, whatever he may have muttered over brandy. Thatcher did not label Kinnock a ‘loser’ at a fundraising dinner, though she likely thought it. We have our share of boorishness, yes, but we have not yet descended to the level of a kindergarten brawl broadcast on cable news.
What is truly alarming is not the insult itself, but what it reveals about the state of American democracy. The obsession with personality over policy, with the cult of the individual over the substance of governance, is a symptom of intellectual decadence. When the leader of a nation spends his time slinging mud at a predecessor, one must ask: who is minding the store? The economy, foreign policy, the climate these are issues that require nuance and deliberation, not playground taunts.
Some will argue that this is simply politics, that Biden was playing to his base, that Trump himself set the tone. This is the same logic that justifies a child’s tantrum by pointing at another child’s misbehaviour. A nation that prides itself on being a beacon of liberty ought to hold its leaders to a higher standard. The Founders, whatever their flaws, understood that the health of the republic depended on the virtue of its citizens. They would weep to see their legacy reduced to this.
But let us not be smug. The UK is not immune to this disease. Our own political discourse has coarsened, our newspapers trade in scandal, and our leaders increasingly rely on soundbites rather than arguments. Yet in this moment, at least, we can look across the Atlantic and feel a flicker of superiority. Our insults, when they come, are delivered with a certain panache. We do not call our opponents ‘losers’ we imply it with a raised eyebrow, a carefully chosen word, a silence that speaks volumes.
In the end, this episode is a reminder of what happens when a society loses its sense of proportion and its respect for tradition. The American experiment, once a marvel of political philosophy, now looks like a reality show. The UK must hold fast to its own traditions of debate and discourse, lest we too find ourselves in the gutter, trading insults with the barbarians at the gate.
