The range in our kitchen went out a couple weeks ago. No oven, no stovetop, not much to eat except for soup heated in the microwave.
Not bad, if you’re into that sort of thing, but my wife and I put our heads together and thought, “We should get this fixed.” A bold plan if you ask me, so we went with it.
If you are as mechanically challenged as I am, there are two ways to approach this. You could think, “I will find a qualified repair person who has much experience fixing ranges — somebody who has been trained, understands kitchen appliances, and has demonstrated the ability to do this kind of repair. And I will call and hire them to fix it.”
Or you could think, “I will hire somebody who has never done this before, somebody who has had success in another field and has been on TV and says they have all the answers. Because if I like them on TV, then surely they can fix a kitchen appliance.”
Naturally, I tried the second approach. But Dave Letterman was not available to come over and fix my range.
Just kidding. I called a professional who knows what they are doing and the problem was solved. Funny how that works.
I highly recommend this approach; some people are simply more qualified than others.
After all, it doesn’t seem sensible to call your mechanic if your gout is acting up, or your stockbroker to fix your water heater, or the barista at the coffee shop for financial tips. There is something to be said for experience and expertise, the kind that results in solutions rather simplistic tropes. Yet, for some reason, Americans cling to the notion that hiring an outsider is the best approach for choosing a president.
This isn’t about Donald Trump. Well, not entirely. And it certainly is not a suggestion that Hillary Clinton would have been a better choice because she had more political experience; public enmity toward Clinton was understandable and does not need to be rehashed now.
Don’t lose your minds
But this is about Oprah Winfrey and about her sudden ascendancy as a possible presidential candidate. Oprah is a brilliant woman and a marvelous orator, and many, many people are pondering whether or not she will run for president. So, to those who are secretly or not so secretly hoping that she runs, a response is warranted: “Have you lost your minds?!?”
Oh, there is nothing new about Americans fooling themselves into believing that a lack of experience is a sterling qualification for the presidency. In six of the past seven presidential elections, the public has opted for the candidate with less experience; President Obama won re-election in 2012 despite having more political experience than Mitt Romney.
Nor is there anything magical about being part of the system that makes somebody an effective president. Bill Clinton had 12 years as governor of a small state and some deep personal flaws that he carried with him to the Oval Office. Yet the rebuttal to his critics is simple: “What didn’t you like, the peace or the prosperity?”
There is no simple formula for predicting an effective president, and the office inevitably bends, molds, and shapes the office- holder. But the idea that an outsider — somebody who does not understand representative politics and has no previous relationship with government — is absurd. If you really want to drain the swamp, you call somebody who has plumbing skills, not an incompetent charlatan.
That, as much as anything, is the lesson from the first year of the Trump presidency. He can throw blame at Democrats or the media, but the truth is that his ineffectiveness is a result of Americans hiring an unqualified person for the job. It is a lesson that should end the notion that celebrity politicians are a wise choice, a lesson that should quickly quash any idea of Oprah running for office.
Because in choosing a president, we should require at least the level of competence we expect for fixing appliances.
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