An Outsider as President

Imagine this: your company is in the worst condition in its history: the morale in management and labor is low, in fact the labor force is getting angrier and angrier. The company stock is at an all-time low, its financial situation is terrible. So the company decides to look for a new president. The qualifications of the president are simple: he must know nothing about the job and have no experience in the business of the company.

Ridiculous? Absurd? Yet these are the qualifications of the leading Republican candidates for President of the United States. Apparently a majority of the Republican electorate want an "outsider", who knows nothing about the job and has no experience in it. They haven't even been asked why they think an outsider can do a better job by representatives of the media corporations. The position is simply presented as an understandable fact. Well, I don't understand it and when it is examined closely, it surpasses absurdity.

Reactionary Republicans have been driven to their position by anger at the current government, promoted by hate-mongers like Rush Limbaugh and the Fox News staff. I have a friend who underwent anger management. She was told that when we get angry, our IQ drops 30%. That may be an overly conservative estimate. Republicans depend on an electorate that is angry enough to vote against their own self interests.

The job of President of the United States is not a simple one that anyone who walks in off the street can do. The President should have deep knowledge of not only US government and world politics, but the US and world economies, how to negotiate with a host of nations, a knowledge of the plethora of attitudes of the American people, the geography of the US and the world, a knowlege of science, and the history of all the above.