Unqualified is the Trump Theme

The American Political System is a free-for-all that is loosely vetted and incompetently governed by We the People and the political parties of our choosing. As I have written before, no standards are governing the political corporations on which we depend to produce qualified candidates from which we will select and vote.

Part of the problem begins with members of Congress and the President getting a pass on security clearances. Presumed is that the incumbents are allegiant, law-abiding and qualified on being elected. That is a gross mistake given that citizen-voters have no standards on which to judge beyond their various opinions.

In a pluralistic democracy, we allow much leniency, though that may be to our peril. We can do better if we want to.

Starting with President Trump, if he had to complete the security clearance questionnaire, would he pass? I don't think so. Many members of the Trump staff have departed for various deficiencies undermining their performance, including security clearances.

Many cabinet directors were appointed and approved by Congress even when the incumbents appeared to be grossly unqualified and even hostile toward the departments for which they would lead. The conspiracy by Donald Trump to attack and undermine the federal government is accomplished under his theme, "Drain the Swamp." That might make a good bumper sticker, though is irresponsible in approaching the management of a vast government enterprise.

Ben Carson ran for President, and I evaluated his resume. He failed for reasons that I share here. The news today is about how he seems to have disappeared from Housing and Urban Development.

“Dr. Ben Carson is an especially interesting candidate because he is an African American as was former Republican candidate Herman Cain. Like Rand Paul, he is a medical doctor and also a brain surgeon. He arrived at entering politics only after having been exceptionally successful in the medical profession, having performed breakthrough medical procedures. The question is, can a person from the medical profession manage a very large enterprise without ever having managed one before? Ben Carson

Resume[i]“Born         Benjamin Solomon Carson 

September 18, 1951 (age 64)Detroit, Michigan, U.S. 

Alma mater Yale University (B.A.)University of Michigan Medical School (M.D.) 

Known for Separation of conjoined twins Hemispherectomy 

Conservative political commentary 

2016 presidential candidacy 

Political party      Republican (1981–99; 2014–present) 

Democratic (before 1981)Independent (1999–2014)[1] 

Religion     Protestant (Seventh-day Adventist)Spouse(s)   Lacena "Candy" (Rustin) Carson (m. 1975) 

Children     3 sons:MurrayBenjamin, Jr.RhoeyceParent(s)    Robert Solomon CarsonSonya Copeland 

Awards      Presidential Medal of FreedomFord's Theatre Lincoln Medal”[ii]

Table 7.2.13: Scoring Dr. Ben Carson

Evaluation Criterion	Score Value
Qualifications Required by Law	1
Home state or location from which the candidate is from	1
IQ: H-3, M-2, L-0	3
College Graduate BS/BA	2
GPA: H-3, M-2, L-0	3
Academic Honors and Distinctions	1
Post Graduate – Masters	1
PhD	0
Certifications: Bar, CPA, Cert. Engineer, MD	1
Occupation/Vocation: Law/CPA/Professional, 2 CEO, 2 Other, 1	1
Health: Excellent, 2; Good, 1; Poor, 0	1
Affected Class	1
Character	3
Leadership	3
Continuing Education and Training	1
Knowledge	3
Skill	2
Life History	3
Platform/Agenda	2
Relationships +1, -1, 0	1
Political Party	1
Values	3
Military Experience: Veteran, 3; Officer, 2; None, 0	0
Public Office: Vice President	0
Public Office: Judge	0
Department Secretary	0
Governor	0
U. S. Senator	0
U. S. Representative	0
Mayor	0
State Legislator	0
Other Public Office	0
Private Sector CEO/President	0
Private Sector VP	0
Private Sector Director	0
Manager	0
Entrepreneur	0
Inventor	1
Memberships	1
Religion: Matters, Irrelevant, Private	1
Incumbency: Acceptable-10, Unacceptable, 0	0
Pre-Presidential Candidate Score	41/83

Dr. Ben Carson scores one point lower than Dr. Rand Paul and neither resume demonstrates experience in managing a very large government enterprise.

How to Select an American President by James A. George and James A. Rodger (C) 2017 Archway Publishing. 

"Ben Carson, or the tale of the disappearing Cabinet secretaryBy Ben Terris February 6
 It was Christmastime in Washington, and Ben Carson couldn’t stop talking about the apocalypse. “Did you know,” the secretary of housing and urban development asked his acting chief of staff, Deana Bass, at a Capitol Hill holiday party, “that if North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon into our exosphere, it could take out our entire electrical grid?” Bass shook her head. “What’s that movie where there’s complete lawlessness and anarchy for one night a year?” Carson said, calmly resting his right hand over his left. “ ‘The Purge’! It will be like ‘The Purge’ all the time.”
  

Carson is an acclaimed neurosurgeon who oversees a large government agency for which he has no particular qualifications and in this way represents the grand theme of the Trump administration. He, like the president, came to power by promising that an outsider would have the “common sense” it takes to cure what ails us. And so, while conservative gadfly Armstrong Williams played host to this party at the Monocle restaurant, it was Carson everyone came to see. “There’s never been a time in the history of the world where a society became divided like this and did well,” Carson said as a crowd — including an off-duty New York Times reporter, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a slew of representatives from housing nonprofit organizations and old friends from his presidential campaign — circled him. “And we don’t really have a reason to be fighting each other. There was a movie some years ago, a Will Smith movie called ‘Independence Day’ . . .”
  

With his soothing, story-time cadences and heavy-lidded gaze, Carson proceeded to hold forth on how Earth’s near-annihilation laid bare the superficiality of all the world’s strife. If only, he argued, people realized that the fate of humanity hung in the balance, then Palestinians and Jews, or even the United States and Russia, could be “like best friends.”"  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ben-carson-or-the-tale-of-the-disappearing-cabinet-secretary/2018/02/05/74c46de8-04ff-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?utm_term=.b0b31792aee7&wpisrc=al_trending_now__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1

Philip Scott Andrews/For The Washington Post

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[i] Ben Carson, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson

[ii] Ben Carson, ibid wiki