Politicians, to most of us, are personalities on a screen. The chances for the ordinary citizen of meeting those governing him in flesh and blood are quite slim. Especially the celebrities of the political set-up are elusive like film stars, just not as good-looking or popular.
This of course changes somewhat right before elections, when those in and those seeking power remember that the unwashed masses exist not just as tax-paying entities, but do breathe and live (and some of them might even think). It was on one such occasion that the author of this text experienced one of Germany’s political superstars “in the wild”: Annalena Baerbock of the Green party.
This was back in 2021, during her bid for the German chancellorship. Baerbock ultimately lost the chancellorship to Social Democrat Olaf Scholz but famously became the Foreign Secretary instead. At that point, this was all in the future, as she took the stage on a warm day in late August. It was a sort of “homecoming” gig for her, since the location was the Bassinplatz in her chosen hometown of Potsdam in the state of Brandenburg in East Germany (Baerbock originally hails from Western Germany’s Hannover). What was it like to see and hear this heavyweight of German politics? Well, to say something nice, she is not bad looking. Apart from that? Less than memorable. She appeared like an overgrown high school class president, with the trite, precocious and yet insubstantial rhetoric to match, delivered on all the usual Green talking points. The audience’s reaction was lukewarm. If there was anyone in the crowd that day convinced of Baerbock being the successor to Angela Merkel, he would have been regarded as a true believer of Scientologist proportions.
Now that day in 2021 is long ago. Annalena Baerbock has been Foreign Minister for roughly 3 years already, and public opinion on her is, to put it mildly, “divided”. There is the generally unfavorable view of the citizenry, in contrast to the generally adulatory view of the media caste. What Baerbock has is something I’d like to call “media armour”. This means that the media protect her from the ills and natural shocks that come with her position. This has become all too apparent in a currently unfolding affair surrounding Baerbock’s Foreign Ministry office—or rather, has reached a new peak, since the first details became known in early 2023.
What Annalena Baerbock has is something I’d like to call “media armour”. This means that the media protect her from the ills and natural shocks that come with her position.
What happened is that Annalena Baerbock in her position as Foreign Minister ordered her employees to disregard any safety regulations in the granting of visas to Afghan migrants. Even obviously forged passports were accepted, which opened the gates to foreign agents, terrorists, fugitive criminals and yet more migrants who had not gone through the regular visa application process. As of now, several cases are being investigated by the public prosecutors of Berlin and Cottbus. In a sane country, this would be a scandal of epic proportions, surely leading to Baerbock’s resignation and possible prosecution.
Sadly, sanity has gone long out of the window. A regular consumer of state-sponsored media like the ARD or ZDF, or reader of left-leaning newspapers like the Süddeutsche Zeitung, wouldn’t have even known of this affair for the longest time. The news was broken by right-wing liberal and conservative outlets. To add insult to injury, this is not the first time Baerbock has received said “media armour”. It has been with her at least since her attempt at the chancellorship.
In 2021, the Green party nominated their own candidate for the chancellorship for the first time since their founding in 1980. Using the party’s regulations on female quotas, Baerbock made the cut, beating out her then co-chairman Robert Habeck, who has since become vice chancellor and is happily wrecking the German economy as “Minister for Economy and Climate Protection” (official title).
It became clear very quickly that Baerbock was the media candidate. Large media outlets were fawning over this “perfect pick”—after all Baerbock was not only Green, but female. Her several credentials were lauded all over: her degree from the esteemed London School of Economics and her work experience in the EU bureaucracy. She was the Great Green Hope. Around this exact time, the first scandal came to light: her CV had been, to put it politely, embellished. This put her in the dubious company of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. Both politicians’ CVs are mostly pure fabrication.
Furthermore, Baebock’s book had to be withdrawn because of widespread plagiarism. Some of her statements during the televised debates were outrageous. But what would have ended many political careers became no more than a slight blemish on Baerbock’s public persona, all thanks to a supportive media who downplayed everything negative. This did not cease after her ascension to Foreign Minister, even as Baerbock’s constant slips of tongue (“Bacon of hope” instead of “beacon of hope”, “Kobold” [“goblin”] instead of “Kobalt” [“cobalt”]) provided the internet with due entertainment.
And of course there is this perplexing pipe dream called “Feminist Foreign Policy”. This very special sort of diplomacy promotes women’s rights by opening the borders for young men from decidedly not feminist cultures and giving away millions in taxpayer’s money as “Developmental Aid”— under the cover of the UN aid organization UNRWA—to Hamas, which, among other things, engages in the raping and killing of girls and women.
And of course there is this perplexing pipe dream called “Feminist Foreign Policy”. This essentially means giving away “Developmental Aid”— under the cover of the UN aid organization UNRWA—to Hamas, which, among other things, engages in the raping and killing of girls and women.
With this in mind, it is not far-fetched to see Baerbock as an incompetent politician with no regard for the rules of diplomacy or even the safety of her own people. That is bad enough for Germans, but other Western nations should take heed. Annalena Baerbock is not just a person. She is a type. She is a female, leftist candidate with a rather dubious track record and an all too obvious deficiency in knowledge, political competence and rhetorical skills, and yet firmly in a position of power, with a media apparatus in nigh-on worship mode. Sounds familiar? The notion is both frightening and hilarious, but the similarities to Kamala Harris are striking. If her behavior as “Border Czar” in the Joe Biden administration is something to go by—doing anything but securing the southern borders— the common denominators between Annalena and Kamala are concerning.
Annalena Baerbock is not just a person. She is a type. She is a female, leftist candidate with a rather dubious track record and an all too obvious deficiency in knowledge, political competence and rhetorical skills, and yet firmly in a position of power, with a media apparatus in nigh-on worship mode. Sounds familiar?
One might rightfully argue that Annalena and Kamala were not the first of their kind. Didn’t figures like Angela Merkel or Hillary Clinton have the same kind of armour? Isn’t it almost common knowledge by now that Barack Obama was a hyped up politician-impersonator lacking any substance (“Yes, We Can”)? However, these examples differ on certain points from the Baerbock type. Merkel or Clinton did indeed have their accomplishments in the political sphere. Obama had at least oratorical skills. The Annalena/Kamala type does not have any of it. They’re basically a void, filled by PR talk, or just plain propaganda. We could expand the Annalena/Kamala-type to other people in the public sphere, for example astro-turfed activists like Greta Thunberg or, in Germany, Luisa Neubauer, notably both women. Yet they are being sold as the voices of their generation. And then there is the irritating cult around one Taylor Swift, who is hailed as a contemporary pop genius, when she can’t even get past basic chord progressions and some really heavy-handed songwriting. Is this the Taylor Swift Era of politics?
We could expand the Annalena/Kamala-type to other people in the public sphere, for example astro-turfed activists like Greta Thunberg. And then there is the irritating cult around one Taylor Swift, who is hailed as a contemporary pop genius, when she can’t even get past basic chord progressions. Is this the Taylor Swift Era of politics?
When we talk about the Annalena/Kamala type, we are really talking about the media sector considering itself a political player in its own right. It is pursuing its own interests, and these are mostly on the left spectrum. The interplay between political actors and the media is complex, and deserve its own inquiry. What we can glean already, however, is that images have entirely replaced the people behind them. The case of Annalena Baerbock is a cautionary tale as to how disastrously this can ultimately play out, should a “media candidate” get into power. Now think of what a Kamala White House would mean.
Since Harris introduced her economic plans for the nation, one might conceive of a vision—but not a very enticing one. Her grand plan of price caps as a counter-measure against rising prices for groceries would not only practically come at a tremendous economic and social cost, but should make every economically literate observer suspicious. One cannot simply cut down consumption costs and think production costs will remain unaffected. This is kindergarten logic: if most grocery producers sell under (or over) the competitive price, they will go bankrupt, will implement mass layoffs, and go to hell. As every consumer is at one point a producer, this will heavily affect the economy and drive up inflation even more. Add to this milquetoast leftist economic logic Kamala’s pick of Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz as her possible VP: a man of the far-left within the party. Add also her unabashedly tautological rhetoric (“We need to stay woke, you know everybody needs to stay woke, ha ha ha!”), defending whatever this is by stressing the word equity with heightened frequency. A future with Harris-Walz is not really inconceivable: the same, but more of it, garnished with hysterical cackling.
Americans would live through a similar experience to Germans under the current government of desperate Social Democrats, dominant Greens and barely-there Classical Liberals, just much more extreme. This will predominantly be reflected in disastrous economic policies. The massive social problems caused by unchecked migration on the southern border will fester and spread. On top of all this, hot topics such as race relations or abortion will only further the divisions within the American people. What a Harris-Walz administration could do to endangered rights like freedom of speech or the Second Amendment can only be guessed. While Americans might be in fear for their country, the people tasked to lead it will be too busy signalling leftist virtues and reserve the greatest care for the own pet agendas. And be prepared for the New York Times to tell you that everything is better than it ever was. Kamala brought back the joy, don’t you know?
And be prepared for the New York Times to tell you that everything is better than it ever was. Kamala brought back the joy, don’t you know?
In the game of politics, much is riding on The Image. This is known. This fact however becomes a significant problem when The Image is all that is needed to catapult incompetent dilettantes into unsuitable positions, in which they only cause calamity for all. Leave that type of marketing to Taylor Swift.
