One of the principle Democratic
Party talking points this election season will be how Ms. Clinton has
experience in government and her opponent, Mr. Trump, does not. That, she will say, “will make all the
difference in maintaining our position in the world.”
I wonder is that true? How much experience did President Obama have
before he rocketed to the office of President?
Do his supporters believe his lack of hands-on experience made him less
effective in achieving his party’s goals?
I will grant it is a dangerous
world, but then again it is always a dangerous world. It was so in 1789, 1860, 1932, 1952, 1960 and
1980 just to pick a few relevant years.
In each of these years someone who had no experience being President
rose up to lead the nation. In fact,
what job prepares you to be a great President?
Is it being a governor? If that
is the case then we have Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter as
examples of the good and bad. Of the 44
Presidents 10 were governors at one time before their election.
How about a life long history of
public service? George H.W. Bush had
that, how did he do? Is being a
Secretary of State a good indicator of competence? There were three Secretaries of State who
moved up to the job of President.
Unfortunately, the last one was James Madison, so who knows if that
helps out in a modern world full of sophisticated things like private servers
and blackberries.
Military leaderships seems to be
a good quality…but the last war hero was Dwight D. Eisenhower, and this
protracted conflict we are in does not seem to be growing a lot of household
names. True… there are a few who’ve been
profiled in Rolling Stone, but that hasn’t seemed to work out well for them.
There does seem to be one obvious
truth, no one in the history of the US has walked in off the street without
some experience in political/government life to become the President.
We elect our Presidents based
more on emotion than reason. How they will
do once they have to get to work in the Oval Office is hardly, if ever, really
thought through. The only thing we have
to base our choice on is the history they have shown, and the words they
speak. Do the two align?
In this election neither
candidate has a great track record of saying and doing the same thing. One is a billionaire, reality TV star, real
estate tycoon, and the other a millionaire, secretive, inner circle
lawyer/bureaucrat. One has left a wake
of disgruntled politicians behind, the other has left throngs of disgruntled social
justice idealists behind. On the one
hand we have an outsider promising to change government, on the other a
political insider also promising that change.
Who do you believe?
So we come back to the question
does experience in government service matter?
Obviously the answer to that question must come from each voter. If you like the way government is operated,
then yes it does. If not, then no it
doesn’t. In the final analysis, the job
either candidate will fulfill will be unlike anything either of them has ever
done in their life. This 2008 campaign
ad sums it up nicely. In the case of
Ms. Clinton we know how poorly she handled it.
As to Mr. Trump, all we have is a guess about how he will do.
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