South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is ending this year badly. His approval ratings have been low throughout his term, but now stand at a paltry 26 percent, up only slightly from recent lows. Calls for him to step down or face impeachment and removal have spread. His wife is facing accusations of corruption and calls for her prosecution. Coming at the mid-point in his term, citizens are worried about a lack of leadership during the rest of his term.
What went wrong? And what, if anything, can the president do to turn things around? Democracies, such as South Korea, choose leaders through free and fair elections. Government structures and procedures differ from country to country, but power flows from the voters. This means that between elections, leaders must maintain public support in order to govern. Unlike elections, public support is expressed in various ways such as polls, party loyalty, news cycles and the “public mood.”
How, then, do leaders maintain support? The “communication ability” category from the Siena College Research Institute rankings of US presidents in 2022 offers answers. Among US presidents over the past 100 years, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy rank first and second, respectively, in this category. They are followed by Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, who fill out the top five. The same survey ranks Roosevelt and Kennedy in the top ten best presidents in history.
Roosevelt and Kennedy understood that the president needs to project optimism and communicate that through effective use of media. Taking office as the Great Depression spiraled downward, Roosevelt began his term with a series of actions during the famous “First 100 Days.” He turned to radio, a fairly new technology at the time, to address the nation in evening “fireside chats.” From 1933 to 1944, he gave 30 addresses that explained his policies while offering assurance to Americans.
Kennedy entered office at the peak of US power and influence but used TV, also a fairly new technology, to push his agenda. He gave frequent televised news conferences that gave him a chance to project a confident and optimistic tone. During his nearly three years in office, Kennedy’s approval rating was extraordinarily high; he hit a low of 56 percent, making him the only president in polling began in the 1930s not to drop below 50 percent.
The same Siena College survey ranked President Joe Biden 30th in communication ability, but that ranking will no doubt fall as the last half of his term is factored in. Biden entered office while the COVID-19 pandemic was still raging and then he presided over a successful vaccine roll out. The public rewarded him with positive approval ratings, but things soured after the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. A sharp rise in inflation over the next two years further battered the president’s approval ratings. During his first two years, he passed important future-oriented bills but failed to communicate their benefits effectively to an inflation-weary public. During his term, he has held few press conferences, his speeches have taken on an unpleasant yelling tone, and his use of social media has been perfunctory at best.
Roosevelt and Kennedy had charisma that Biden can only dream of, but more than charisma, a confident and optimistic tone helped rally the public to their side. They asked people to dream of a better future, as Kennedy did in his inaugural address in 1961 at the height of the Cold War. “Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.”
So, what can President Yoon do now? Projecting a confident and optimistic vision for the nation would be a good start. Like voters elsewhere, South Korean voters want two big things: peace and prosperity. And like voters elsewhere, they are worried about both and are voicing those worries by supporting opposition parties. What is the president’s vision for peace on the Korean Peninsula? How does he plan to address economic security issues that worry so many? He needs to use a wide range of media to communicate his answers to these questions.
Rapid change is sweeping the world as the post-World War II order based on free trade and global US engagement begins to crumble. South Korea cannot wait two and half years for leadership in navigating these rough waters. President Yoon needs to step up now.
Robert J. Fouser
Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Providence, Rhode Island. He can be reached at robertjfouser@gmail.com. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.residents' ability to communicate
