Rich Man & Poor Man

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India the largest democracy lead by Modi as its prime minister and the USA the oldest democracy lead by Donald Trump as its President, are both quite a contrast in making daily news.  Both the leaders have robust opposition to their agenda, but the contrasting personalities handling the politics, policy, perception, personalities and pertinence are as different as day and night.

The common trait between Modi and Trump is their use of social media.  They have millions of followers and both are active on social media.  That’s where the similarities end.

For their followers on social media, the leaders of the largest and oldest democracy the contrast is obvious and reflect their approach to governing and life.  The reality is that Modi is from a very small town with very limited resources to his family, and Trump a well to do real estate family with New York as his base and a wealthy man who just wanted to be president.  For both India and USA, the elevation Modi as PM and Trump as President is a true mark of democratic society.  The fact that they are the leaders of India and USA reflect the processes that are people oriented and people driven.  This is one more time we must remind ourselves of the value of democratic societies and free speech.

Modi in general doesn’t publicly criticize or admonish his staff, ministers or anyone around him.  He works very long hours and he is agenda driven.  His party and his administration constantly reinforce their manifesto, and generally stick to their stated agenda.  Modi in his first term as PM of India, has been taint free and focused on his basic intent to drive India to a better human, political and economic environment.  As large as the Indian population is Modi has a challenging task of bringing the Indian population to a surviving wage and sanitary environment.  What is endearing to me is Modi chronologizing his social media accounts with his travels, his policies, his remembrances, his meetings, his plans and his challenges.  Almost all of Modi’s daily updates somehow reach out to a section of the Indian society and at least make them be a part of the nation’s leader’s work and his plans and schedule.  He has been the PM for more than 3 years and he has been continuing to push his election (his party’s) manifesto, and has been successful to a good measure.  Modi’s challenges are not what he would like to do, but the massive task of India as a nation and its ever evolving political and regional challenges.

Trump is rich and new to politics.  He is used to managing a private real estate enterprise (nothing public that must report to the shareholders) and only he was in control of his actions.  His life is well documented and until a couple of years ago he was not involved in public policy or politics.  In his still infant presidential role, Trump has continued to be impulsive as he was in his private enterprise.  His social media challenges are more challenging rather than policy, and his contrasting communications are often contradictory to his own public pronouncements.  As every word that was said before being a politician and after he has become one, the difficulty is to keep the message straight.  USA is a well healed nation with its economy, its people, its military and its borders are all in contact motion of protecting the nation, and running despite of the politics.  USA is much too large for a single person, or single party to put it at risk, and it can self-correct any anomalies.  Outside of the truly democratic enterprise, the nation is also self-affecting and self-analyzing.  No one person even if it is the nation’s leader is above the law of the land, and respect (eventually) for the rule of law is still followed.  The problem with Trump might not be his social media skills, or his political skills.  His problem is exact opposite of Modi.  Trump and his message can be directed to his election (republican) manifesto.  No matter what the political pressures are, Trump should stick to his work to do, and stay with policy making.  The first six months of Trump’s issues have been more with his own party and his social media attacks.  All we need to keep Trump and the republicans on the same agenda, and leave the personal attacks on social media to himself.  All will be well as we do have a Republican congress and Republican president, and a republican agenda is supported by 50% of the population.  If Trump’s presidency will have to start working on policy and legacy, it can simply stick to the republican agenda and push a daily resolution of the republican party agenda.  Trump offering to cut the deficit to zero sounds wonderful to me, and most of the forward-looking citizens.  If he does nothing but simply eliminate the government waste and budget deficit, he would have brought his businessmen skills (he keeps touting) to governance.  Trump certainly has the business skills and he has his party in his tail winds, and pushing even a single point agenda (zero deficit) he will be well deserving of a legacy of performance.  He is only number 45 on the presidential list, and the citizens are for sure capable of choosing a leader.

The poor man as a prime minister and a rick man as a president are both in the same time for the civilization and have a huge contrast in where they come from.  Their social media skills are reflective of their personalities that are in opposite spectrum, and perhaps also reflective of the economic agendas of the nations.  The reflection of the contrast in reaching the massive audience is also reflective of the audience and its interest in what they expect of their leader.  The audience is what will drive these leaders and their agenda and policies.  We can perhaps reflect the nations receptivity to what their leaders represent.  It’s us people who drive democracies and it is us people we elect our leaders, and whatever messages we get back from our leader’s is simply our doing.