Why a U.S. President Manifesto Standard?

Why a U.S. President Manifesto Standard? This is a quotation from a book in progress.

         Having experienced the U.S. Election 2016, voter citizens must surely conclude that the American political system is in deep trouble and need of repair or replacement. Indications include:

•       Too few qualified candidates

•       Inadequate qualification standards

•       Inadequate resume evaluation process

•       Political party disunity and dysfunction

•       Deficient transparency about political driving forces

•       Candidate’s misalignment with voter needs and wants and misalignment with their party

•       Systemic deficiencies resulting in dysfunctional government

•       Intrusion by cyber hackers to interfere in a fair election

•       Deficiencies in omissions from flawed and incomplete presidential manifestos

Some might say that the outcome is exactly how they desired (49%). Others could disagree because the popular vote was in disparity with the electoral vote (51%). That is not the point here. When political parties fail to produce candidates that have the ability to unify the nation, then the result will be a dysfunctional government. When voters elect representatives, who lack collaboration and unification skills, knowledge, and experience, the government in a pluralistic democratic republic such as the U.S. isn’t likely to perform effectively. Worse, the world’s representative democracy is degrading to what former President, Jimmy Carter describes as now being an oligarchy. An oligarchy is when a few powerful entities control government by having managed the financing of elected officials who are beholding to them.

The U.S. Congress became controlled by wealthy persons and corporations that in turn co-opted government to legislate that they should have the right to gain economic superiority in election financing at the expense of individual citizens. They appealed their rights to the U.S Supreme Court that had no choice except to side with the moneyed and powerful interests because that is how the law is established, however, flawed it may be. Congress must change the law. At least one candidate and one party in Elections 2016 wanted to do that.

The first step that Americans can take to improve the situation and process is to focus on selecting better candidates. That is what the author recommends in the book: How to Select an American President by James A. George with James A. Rodger © 2017 Archway Publishing. We gave attention to how to evaluate candidate resumes. Once screened, the best candidate worthy of consideration on merit may are assessed based upon their approach to being President of the United States. Deficiently qualified candidates are rejected without further attention.

Voters have limited capacity to evaluate candidates, and it is up to political parties and their processes to produce the best-qualified candidates. They must do this by establishing guidelines and standards for evaluating resumes, and then evaluate candidate ideas and agendas. They have failed.

Citizens of all kinds can express their thoughts about what to expect from government performance, and about ideas that promote improvements across the broad and deep range of public policy and operational performance.

Intended here is to require that U.S. Presidential candidates aspire to certain minimum standards in declaring and describing how they intend to govern and to manage under the nation’s Constitutional laws and in context with the three branches of government. The standard for this is citizen-driven, beginning with this book’s example.

The American democratic republic is founded on the notion that citizens are the “bosses” of their elected representatives at every level of government from local to state and the federal government. No matter who you are or your status and ability, the responsibility is yours that includes:

1.     Understanding the job or position for which you are staffing

2.     Knowing the skill, knowledge, proficiency and medical and mental capabilities required

3.     Having the proper information to evaluate and to make choices

For most busy people and “average” Americans, finding the time to attend to this responsibility might be a stretch. That is why citizens depend upon political parties and other “trusted” organizations to assist them. Our legal and regulatory institutions have a part to play as well. They are the organizations that help verify the facts about politicians and their claims, otherwise answering the question, “Are they truthful?”

In this book that is part of a series, the suggestion is that presidential candidates possess sufficient knowledge, skill, and experience to attend to managing a vast government enterprise. Presumed is that candidates should have experience managing a large government enterprise such as having been a governor of a large state, or a mayor of a large city. Having experience managing a large government organization is only one prerequisite.
Better still is that a candidate has experience having managed a large commercial enterprise, preferably competing in the global market. Having done that successfully, a candidate has demonstrated the ability to perform managing a diverse workforce while also succeeding in producing strong financial performance and essential outcomes.

The U.S. government is a service-delivery enterprise. That distinction is important because it points to optimizing performance through logistics management. The government operates as a service-oriented enterprise. Since the U.S. government manages to create a productive environment for individual and commercial success, it makes sense to expect presidential candidates to have had direct executive experience. In fact, presidential candidates who have been successful inventors and who have created large enterprises or who have extended their life cycles through innovation and invention should be valued as most worthy.

What is the alternative? Some people begin their working careers intent on being politicians all of their lives. Doing that, they forfeit ever having worked in the private sector, learning to manage a commercial enterprise. They cannot have gained sufficient knowledge about the economy by working solely for the government.

By comparison, a successful business executive who has managed a large commercial enterprise may have had the opportunity to understand how government policies affect commerce and the national economy with the first-hand experience. However, if a corporate executive’s resume lacks government experience, then there may be no indication that the office-seeker can manage in a government enterprise that is considerably different culturally from commercial enterprise.

The American political system and the government is a public and private partnership, and candidates should reflect direct experience in that context. As important, presidential candidates must possess collaboration skills and associated behavioral characteristics. Having a certifiable high IQ with proof of applied intellect is not too much to demand. This book addresses what voters should expect from a presidential candidate expressed as a full manifesto.

According to Wiki with references to other sources, “a manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus and promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes the author believes should be made. It often is political or artistic in nature, but may present an individual's life stance. Manifestos relating to religious belief are referred to as creeds.”¹

The idea here is to ask presidential candidates to write and publish their manifesto about how they intend to govern the vast U.S. bureaucracy. Included in the manifesto is the candidate’s description of how they intend to work with Congress in a bipartisan manner.

Many presidential candidates write books. They select a favorite theme and then drive it home in their personal author style. Often, the books are autobiographical. Those are good things because they provide insight into them. However, in the absence of a baseline standard, they may hit or miss important topics. It should not be a contest to try to discern candidates’ intentions as clarity is essential.

That is why an outline is needed for a presidential manifesto as a minimum standard. While this book offers a place to begin, expected is that other nonpartisan organizations may have additional ideas about what should be included. If this book prompts attention to the developing of presidential manifestos, that will have been the desired outcome.

(c) 2017 by James A. George, All Rights Reserved

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