The government should be as serious and respected as we allow them to be; if politicians can’t understand that, its people will be negatively affected.
Politicians behavior in the media
Last week, the press secretary for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, responded unprofessionally to a text message from a HuffPost reporter and posted it on X, which sparked debate on how seriously we take political figures today. The existence of the debate itself explains how much the respect of American politics has faded away.
Before a meeting between the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, was canceled, they were going to have a discussion about the war in Ukraine in Budapest. This place has historical relevance related to Russia and the Soviet Union because it’s the same city where Russia and Ukraine negotiated Ukrainian independence in 1994.
The HuffPost reporter, S.V. Dáte, asked, “Who picked Budapest?” To which Leavitt responded, “Your mom did,” and called him a “left-wing hack” on social media.
This is a lack of professionalism in the higher administration of the government, which should concern people who voted for the people in this position if the press secretary isn’t capable of giving a mature answer.
It’s expected that the answers to questions from the press align with who is running the country, but it shouldn’t exclude anybody or undermine other groups of people.
People in high positions in the government, like press secretary, should be trying to represent the White House and American politics as a whole with professionalism and try to unite the country, not divide it.
It’s very sad to see this kind of behavior because, as an international student, I always saw American politics as very important, since they have always been one of the most politically relevant countries.
Seeing how it has lost its prestige over the years is worrying. Now, American politics are more volatile than I have ever seen them, and also less serious.
When a leader speaks for its people, it gives an image of who those people are. If we want politics to be taken more seriously, we should act that way as well.
You would expect the press secretary to respond according to the tone of the subject, but instead, she responded and acted very childishly, as if she were proud of talking to a journalist disrespectfully.
We have grown accustomed to seeing behaviors like Leavitt’s “your mom” comment or President Trump posting on social media an AI-generated video disrespecting the people who attended the “No Kings” protest. This shouldn’t be happening because Americans are the ones who elected these people, and now they are being mocked by them.
Social media’s impact on society and politics
Not everything is to blame on the politicians; some people also have the same attitude as Leavitt and Trump. It’s not a stretch to say people don’t take politics as seriously as before.
The main factor is social media shaping society to not take important matters with respect and introspectiveness. There is a fine line between humor and reality, and even though having fun should not be subtracted from our everyday life, we have to understand what should be made more humorous and what should not.
The first step toward changing this is understanding that no nation’s future was ever changed by laughing and joking through tough times.
This generation has used social media to mock and satirize important or professional events in the political climate. Cases like J.D. Vance’s face being a meme or Bernie Sanders sitting on a chair show that we try to make anything a laughing matter on social media.
The importance of treating politics responsibly
We have to understand the severity of certain topics, like war or the future of a country, and not trivialize them; because when we do so, we take a backseat and stop caring about what’s important in the world.
We turn anything into a joke and, in return, political figures feel more encouraged to say or act unprofessionally since it’s going to be made fun of anyway. Just like the phrase that says “any publicity is good publicity.”
That mindset can help people like influencers to gain more outreach, whether it comes with a good reputation or not; politicians should not rely on this method because it degrades the image of the country they are trying to represent.
Societal impact
We have to be more mindful of what we allow to be made humorous since it can impact the whole world, not just the United States. Out of everything, we should discuss topics of this nature with respect; which starts by not mocking important decisions and events of a political nature.
The United States is currently the most powerful country in the world, and its political decisions affect everyone, whether willingly or not.
This makes it even more paramount to treat political subjects with importance since the government represents the leaders chosen by the people.
