
The Leader of the Free World Gives a Speech, and She Nails It - fxtentacle
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/angela-merkel-nails-coronavirus-speech-unlike-trump.html
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zck
> Angela Merkel doesn’t do drama and she doesn’t give speeches on TV.

I've seen this reported a few times, and it's always stated and never
explained. My question: why doesn't she?

Not "why doesn't she do drama", although digging into her biography would also
be interesting. Why doesn't she give speeches on TV?

I suspect some of this is because there's a split between the President and
the Chancellor of Germany, but I don't know much about the politics there.
Being from America, I don't easily grok the difference between "head of state"
and "head of government". I also don't often hear about the German President,
making it seem like the Chancellor is more important.

~~~
detaro
Outside of the New Years speech, German chancellors generally don't do "TV
speeches" (I recently saw a number of only 5 other cases where they did: Iraq
war, Kosovo war, 2x reunification of Germany, RAF terror). That of course
doesn't mean things they say aren't distributed, just that it's unusual as the
formal address to the nation. E.g. they can speak in parliament, and we might
see that speech or snippets of it distributed. And they do give statements to
press.

Not sure how much of a role the split plays, e.g. the President doesn't do it
that much either.

For Merkel specifically, she's generally happy to let others do the talking,
observe the reactions and then act according to that, in what one could call a
fairly passive style.

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MR4D
I have a big issue with the politics of this piece. The whole “leader of the
free world” applying to Merkel is media frustration with Trump.

However, it’s not the media (or my) job to apply this label. Rather, it’s
earned by the person who most shapes the free world.

By definition, that is not Xi or Putin.

Merkel’s influence compared to any American president is significantly less.

A US President has mush more influence over things like trade, war, and
finance than any German leader since 1945.

I say this objectively, regardless of whether I like or hate the person in
either office.

Merkel may have nailed the speech, but that is almost tangential to the
distorted headline.

~~~
root_axis
I noticed this transition in the media around the time of the summit in
Helsiinki. At the time, Trump publicly deferred to Putin and contradicted U.S.
intelligence, this event strengthened the narrative that Trump is in some ways
subservient or at least sympathetic to Putin's geopolitical agenda, thus
violating the definition you emphasized in your comment. "Leader of the free
world" is a statement of propaganda no matter who is uttering it about whom,
but I think it's fair to argue that Trump's behavior contributed to this
result.

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fxtentacle
I find it quite fascinating that this is a US newspaper using the terminology
previously reserved for US presidents like Obama, but deliberately denying it
to Trump.

It appears that this didn't get quite as much attention inside Germany as the
article makes it to be, but apparently many New Yorkers are now looking
outside of the US for guidance.

~~~
throwaway4787
I guess that's the point. And I mean, Trump appears to have forfeited this
role of his own accord, what with all his America First schtick.

Also, it seems that regarding covid the best insights come from China, Korea,
Italy or France, not the US.

~~~
ALittleLight
Forfeited the role? "Leader of the Free World" was just a rhetorical title and
not an actual role. Surely the people in other parts of the Free World didn't
think of previous Presidents as their leaders.

In my opinion, all this means is that some media outlets liked previous
Presidents and don't like Trump. I'm not convinced anything is actually lost
because some people don't call the President "Leader of the Free World."

~~~
NicoJuicy
Claiming that it's the media that doesn't like Trump is so wrong. Let's be
clear here, a leader should be a clear communicator and if your medium is
Twitter and you look at Trump's... Well, should be enough to prove my point.

Coming from Europe, I can only attest the other comment here.

But Trump is most definitely not a worthy president, I doubt the current
partnerships would survive another term of Trump.

~~~
ALittleLight
I wrote that some media doesn't like Trump, and I think that's fairly
obviously true. Are you suggesting that all media outlets do like him?

"Leader of the Free World" is just something that American media, and perhaps
other media outlets, use. They chose to start using it, to contrast the "Free
World" with the enslaved world of the USSR and sundry. Some media outlets have
chosen to stop using the term to refer to Trump, but that is purely an
expression of their estimation of Trump, it's not an actual role or title
lost.

Since you come from Europe, I'm curious to know, did you consider George Bush
your leader? Do you consider yourself part of the Free World?

~~~
NicoJuicy
Yes, George Bush was also.

All of the previous presidents knew the strength of partnerships.

Although "i'm coming from Europe", I think my POV is pretty objective. But I
will defend that opinion.

I'm part of the Western world and the Western world is currently the most free
from all of them.

Ps. I'm not referencing the past, we did harsh things in the "distant past" (
relatively).

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jsjddbbwj
Considering that the EU doesn't even have freedom of speech, calling that the
free world is quite the stretch.

~~~
justanotherc
But they don't have civil forfeiture, they have a less tyrannical justice
system, they have fewer incarcerated people per capita, so there's that.

Americans claim they are free, but only if they contort the definition.
There's more to freedom than guns and free speech.

~~~
jsjddbbwj
A more tyrannical justice system and more incarcerated people are not
necessarily bad per se. Remember that the US is vastly more heterogeneous
which translates into more crime. Keeping criminals in prison is freedom--
freedom to own a store and not being robbed, for instance.

Not sure how common civil forfeiture is, I'm not American, but it sounds quite
fishy indeed. As I said below, I didn't mention the US at all...

~~~
weare138
> Remember that the US is vastly more heterogeneous which translates into more
> crime

Care to substantiate that claim?

~~~
Fjolsvith
Care to debunk it?

~~~
weare138
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence or in your case, any. It's
on you to prove it not vise versa.

~~~
Fjolsvith
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43552152?seq=1](https://www.jstor.org/stable/43552152?seq=1)

and

[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227283604_Populatio...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227283604_Population_Heterogeneity_and_State_Dependence_State_of_the_Evidence_and_Directions_For_Future_Research)

