At some point in time I will do a series on what I anticipate to be a rather large starting field for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination. Not too long ago I wrote a piece imploring the “older generation” of Democrats to make room for a relatively younger group. Even though that disqualifies some of my favorite progressives, I still feel that way. Today I want to again paint with a wide brush and say we don’t need a celebrity novice. Let’s explore.
To date the names of Mark Cuban, Oprah Winfrey and Howard Schultz have been the most prominent in the group of celebrities with no government experience that have been talked about as a possible 2020 challenger to presumably Donald Trump or Mike Pence. While I personally have a positive opinion of two out of this trio, I urge them all not to run.
Politicians have a negative imagine in America. However, governing is an “art form” and government is a unique “industry”. Despite the fact that I was a lousy and minimally talented basketball player I was a pretty good coach because, among other things, I had been around and had knowledge of the game. If you suddenly became President of a college in need of restructuring hiring me as your basketball coach (assuming you could get me to unretired) would make sense; hiring me to coach lacrosse wouldn’t. Likewise hiring (and that is exactly what we do with our vote) Cuban, Winfrey or Schultz to run the United States government despite their success in other arenas would be a bad decision.
Trump has proven to be a disastrous President, (and I fear it will get much worse before his time in office comes to an end), in large part because he was not qualified for the job. He lacked a basic idea of what it entailed or how the federal government functioned. I have many assumptions that would prove my previous statement but here is one actual documented example: President-elect Trump asked then President Obama how many West Wing staffers were staying on after January 20th. Trump didn’t know that he named his own staff. West Wing staff positions are not civil service career jobs. Cuban, Winfrey and Schultz appear to be much brighter than Trump but their institutional knowledge of government is far short of that of a Senator or Governor. They like Trump would be a leader of the Party by circumstances sans longtime allies.
The Presidency of the United States is not a figurehead position and should not be a popularity or name recognition contest. We don’t need a Democratic version of Donald Trump!
This article is the property of tellthetruthonthem.com and its content may not be used without citing the source. It may not be reproduced without the permission of Larry Marciniak.