Why Do We Keep Electing Ill-Equipped and Unqualified Candidate to Office?
I do not understand Republican voters’ love affair with Donald Trump. He may be a billionaire but he does not appear to be politically well informed or socially intelligent. He speaks in six word sentences. He says many things twice – and sometimes three times. And he repeats his pitch over and over, interview after interview, speech after speech. If you’ve seen one interview or one speech, you’ve seen them all.
If you compare his post-election speeches with Rubio, Cruz or Bush, Trump seems almost semi-illiterate. When confronted with tough questions, Trump falls apart – becoming a complete scatterbrain – babbling in multiple directions and making little sense vis-a-vis the original question.
Trump is so uncouth that when he rarely does something humble – like letting his wife and sister say a few words – the media goes wild with admiration: “Look how nice he is – look how compassionate he is!”
In summary, it seems to me that Trump is uninformed, undisciplined, egocentric, narcissistic, uncouth, and apparently not instinctively socially smart. With his father’s help and money he obviously learned the ins-and-outs of the real estate and construction business. But that’s a relatively simple business compared to running the world’s largest enterprise – the American government, economy and military.
We have so many bright people – polite people – well qualified people . . . why select another unprepared and unqualified candidate? Obama has been more than enough. Unfortunately – the Republicans have a history of nominating under-qualified and unelectable individuals. Trump certainly meets that criterion.
The majority of people simply do not understand the cause and effect of the election process. They don’t understand the laws of economics, and the government’s affect on those laws.
Many people are attracted to a candidate simply because he makes them feel safe – that he cares about them. They do not understand or even care about the issues – the different political/economic systems: Capitalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Autocracies, etc.
Trump is obviously not the only example.
For example, Obama was nominated and elected because he is black, and worked as a community organizer – caring for the underprivileged. He made a majority of people feel that he would look out for them. “Hope and Change!”
It’s obvious – to succeed a candidate must look caring and competent. Competency is probably more important when it comes to winning the nomination. Caring may be equally important during the presidential campaign.
Bernie Sanders appeal is his projection of caring – giving everybody everything they could possibly want at the expense of the wealthy and privileged. The fact that he can’t deliver – has been a totally ineffective and unaccomplished Senator – is totally irrelevant to the under-informed majority.
This is why so many politicians promise the world – to get elected. But they fail to implement because their proposals are in violation of the laws of economics and/or our Constitution. Need proof?
Our nation has just passed a debt of $19 trillion. Do you have any idea of how much that is? Of course you do. It’s uncountable. And to continue to make matters worse, Obama just submitted a $4 trillion budget, again in deficit. The man is irresponsible, but many people don’t get it – don’t care – just gimme! gimme! gimme!
What’s amazing is we have more people than ever, who are high school and college “educated” – but collectively our nation seems to understand less and less about basic economics and responsible governance and personal responsibility. Perhaps that’s because our education system is focused on the nation’s cultural imperfections rather than developing the individual’s character. Students are taught the nation is messed up – while they are personally okay. In the past, the education system focused on developing the individual’s character and personal responsibility as its first priority.
Of course, the media also shares in the declining acceptance of personal responsibility and character development. Focusing on the nation’s cultural imperfections sells more advertising space in our under-informed society.
All of this contributes to individuals’ being elected to high office who simply should not be there.
Image: Bernie Sanders via photopin (license)