Having spent nearly 40 years in a career focused on politics and public policy, I have always found it perplexing that lack of experience could be considered a virtue when seeking political office. I can think of no other field where anyone would boast that their lack of experience is in fact a qualification.
This has come to wide public attention as the national polls show that the top three Republican contenders have no, zero, nothing in the way of experience serving in government. This particularly struck me when I heard Donald Trump talk about his idea for returning offshore jobs in Mexico back to the U.S. Mr. Trump pontificated how he would one day at noon place a high tariff on the importation of cars from Mexico. He then stated that by four that afternoon and no later than the next day, the CEOs of the auto companies would capitulate and announce that they will be building all their cars in the U.S.
What is interesting from a public policy perspective is that it appears that Mr. Trump has no idea that unlike his CEO experience, the president can’t just come up with an idea, good or bad, and do it. We have a very nagging document called the Constitution that actually establishes a form of government with three branches and a process often referred to as “checks and balances.”
In other words the founding fathers didn’t want a president to arbitrarily take actions such as increasing taxes and tariffs. In fact the president doesn’t have the authority to introduce a bill in Congress. While a president can most certainly find a congressman or senator who shares the same view, a member of Congress must introduce each bill. Therefore, not only could President Trump not impose a tariff on autos, he would need to find a friendly legislator to start the lengthy approval process.
A person of Donald Trump’s accomplishment would never think of hiring someone to run one of his prestigious properties that didn’t have experience with hotel or golf course management. His flip comments on government policy, and how he would provide the best health insurance, the best military, and the best of everything with no experience in government or legislating, made me wonder what he would do if someone came to him with the same attitude and applied to run one of his famous golf resorts.
It would be interesting if an applicant applied to run Trump National Doral in Miami with no experience. He might have Mr. Trump’s bravado and great gut instincts, and conclude that golf would be improved if it didn’t take so long. This applicant with no experience in golf might suggest that a good way to speed up play at Doral would be to cut back the number of holes from 18 to 14, makes great sense if one didn’t know anything about golf. Would a great resort owner like Mr. Trump hire this applicant, or would he suggest he get some experience first.
Understanding how tariff and taxes are passed, the complexity of foreign policy, the challenge of moving a large government with three equal branches is critical to effective governing, just as understanding how golf and hospitality are managed is a critical skill to run Doral. Both running the world’s greatest nation and a great golf resort require experience, a criteria popular culture would surely apply to a leading golf resort but doesn’t apply as a qualification to be president of the world’s leading nation.
Tom Block is a public policy consultant who had a 21-year career with JP Morgan Chase where he served as head of government relations in New York City and created a Washington research product. He also created the bank’s EU Government Relations program and developed a new position as U.S. government policy strategist focusing on how U.S. government policy impacts capital markets. He has an extensive government and banking background, has worked on political campaigns and as a speech writer. He is a family trustee of Bernheim Arboretum in Louisville and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from American University. He and his wife make their home in Kentucky. Contact him at tomblockct@aol.com.
Never fails to boggle the mind how the term “elite” has become a dirty word.