Herman Cain will soon be gone—good riddance. His rise reflected one belief that unites both Right and Left in this country: that career politicians are bad.
And it’s a stupid belief that should be retired. It’s time to get rid of the silly notion that someone who has accomplished experience in a specific area like government is thereby disqualified from assuming a position of greater responsibility.
Let’s look at how all of our wonderful non-career politicians have done this season: Cain, Trump, Palin, Bachmann (remember she’s just a mom of 147 kids and a tax attorney) and even Romney (yes, he’s been running for office since before the Internet but since he never wins except in one fluke he hasn’t had a career in politics). What’s the one thing they have common?
They are clowns.
At some point the American people need to grow up and realize that there are real skills and talents involved with governing. You wouldn't hire a plumber who tells you he’s never gotten his hands dirty fixing a toilet. You wouldn’t hire a surgeon to remove a wart on your elbow who tells you she’s never been to medical school or removed a wart before. And yet somehow we expect someone to do things as dramatic as overhaul the entire healthcare industry or change a 10 million page tax code without any experience in doing anything even 1% as complicated.
Here are the following skills that are needed to be a successful politician:
1. Strong in-person speaking/communication skills.
2. Strong media communication skills.
3. Good crisis communication skills.
4. Good ability to sell your ideas to political insiders who don’t already agree with you.
5. The ability to convince the voting public on a course of action and get them to lobby the rest of the political establishment to take the course of action you want.
6. Ability to negotiate to get half of what you want in times when you can’t get all of what you want.
7. Ability to prioritize among dozens of competing good ideas and then focus on just one or two until they are accomplished and then moving down the list.
8. An awareness that your entire life is in a fish bowl and up for public review, criticism and ridicule. And an ability and wiliness to address any past issue of private activity within an hour of media questioning.
We can talk all day long about how corrupt insiders are and how if we just had some “Mr. Smith” who is pure to go to Washington and “fight for what’s right” then all would be well. But government is not now and has never been as simple as finding someone who has the correct viewpoints and who is personally filled with integrity.
I submit that if a politician doesn’t have the above mentioned 8 skills, he or she is going to be a complete incompetent who won’t get anything you want actually accomplished.
Yes, there are politicians in both parties who have “experience” but have been captured by special interest groups and who only vote or advocate for policies that help their own interests or campaign coffers. So just being experienced doesn’t mean someone will actually accomplish anything good. (Or it could mean you are a crook like Nixon)But there are politicians in both parties who had experience before they got to the White House and that led to Presidencies of real accomplishment.
The two most popular and successful presidencies of the last 40 years have been Reagan and Clinton. Reagan had been active in national politics for more than 30 years and was a successful governor for 8 full years before assuming the Presidency. Even though Clinton was the third youngest man to ever become President (at the age of 46), he was the longest serving governor in the nation at the time of his election. (Yes I know all liberals will want to make the case that Reagan wasn’t “successful” because of atrocities he committed. Clinton haters will make the same case against Clinton. I am defining “success” here narrowly in the sense of getting legislation passed favored by a core constituency, winning re-election and maintaining high approval ratings.)
Both Presidents actually got lots of stuff done that appealed to their constituencies.
President Obama has been mocked by his enemies for having no experience, but next to Cain, Christie, etc, Obama is practically Ted Kennedy. Before becoming President, Obama did run in six campaigns. He won three terms as a state senator, lost a bid for the US House, won a US senate race and won the Presidency. No, Obama didn’t have as much executive experience as Clinton or Reagan, but he did serve in public life for a decade and he had to master the skills of running for office from a big state and then serving an entire state. Still, let’s face it; Obama won the nomination in large part because he had less of a public record than Hillary Clinton and his other opponents.
There is a real problem in American politics where the voters of both parties summarily reject any candidate who is experienced and capable. For whatever reason, Republican governors Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour and Jeb Bush all decided not to run for President. Perhaps because they determined, correctly, that their track records of competence and accomplishment would actually be used against them?
My request to American voters of both parties: The next time you feel the need to vote for someone with no experience and no track record of governing accomplishment, do us all a favor and hire a taxi driver who has never driven a car before or get on a plane where the pilot has never flown before.
From www.dailynational.com