Few of us, no matter how qualified we are in our particular field of expertise, would think we could step in an operating room and perform surgery, or design a bridge to support the weight of traffic, or step right into almost any other field of expertise and be competent without a long training period.
But when it comes to politics the world is full of people who think they can step right in and be competent.
This creates a real problem, because getting elected is pretty easy if you have money, some degree of public speaking ability, and attractiveness. But being competent at steering the country is a job that requires a broad base of knowledge and understanding in widely diverse subjects like economics, psychology, history and law.
The last few years the political world has been full of people that made a lot of money in business who think that means they can successfully run a government. The problem is, business is easy. Oh you have to work hard and make tough decisions, but figuring out what decisions to make is relatively easy because you have one goal to focus on - what will make money? What really sets people apart in the business context is ruthlessness. If laying off 2000 people is what will make the most money, you have to be able to do it without letting the impact on those people affect you.
Politics can be that easy if your a dictator. Your goal is your own self interest, with little concern for the powerless.
But in a democracy there is no such simple goal to govern your decisions. Idealists would say you should do what is best for everybody, but often every choice is a choice between helping one group at the expense of another group. So democracy ends up being a more benign version of a dictatorship - whoever has power gets their way at the expense of others.
Since 1908 there have been 18 Presidents. 8 were lawyers - Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, FDR, Nixon, Ford, Clinton and Obama. 7 came out of a business background, ranging from Warren Harding, who owned a newspaper, to Herbert Hoover the mining engineer, to Harry Truman, with his brief fling as a haberdasher, to Jimmy Carter the Peanut farmer, Ronald Reagan the actor and Union President, and the two Bushes with their oil industry interests.
Here is a list of Presidents and their vocations:
William Howard Taft - Rep - 1909-1912 - Lawyer
Woodrow Wilson - Dem- 1913 to 1920 - Lawyer
Warren Harding - Rep - 1921 to 1923 (died in office) - Newspaper owner
Calvin Coolidge -Rep - 1923 to 1929 - Lawyer
Herbert Hoover - Rep - 1929 to 1933 - Mining Engineer
FDR - Dem - 1933 to 1945 (died in office) - Lawyer
Truman - Dem - 1945 to 1953 - briefly business (retail) but lifelong politician
Dwight D. Eisenhower - Rep - 1953 to 1961 - Career Military Officer
JFK - Dem - 1961 to 1963 (died in office) - In the military in WW II but aiming at politics his whole life.
LBJ - Dem - 1963 to 1969 - briefly teacher - lifelong politican
Nixon - Rep - 1969 to 1976 - Lawyer / politician - made his name as a prosecutor
Gerry Ford - Rep - 1976 to 1977 - Lawyer/politician
Jimmy Carter - Dem - 1977 to 1981 - Navy, Peanut Farmer
Ron Reagan - Rep - 1981 to 1989 - Radio Sports announcer, actor, union rep
Bush Sr.- Rep - (1989 to 1993) - Economics/Investment.banking/oil/politics
Clinton - Dem - 1993 to 2001 - Lawyer
Bush Jr. - Rep - 2001 to 2009 MBA - Biz and politics
Obama - Dem - 2009 to -Lawyer
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