An apprentice is a person just starting out in a field of activity with the intention of becoming competent in that chosen field. Once upon a time there was an American president who, years before, began his career as an apprentice in real estate under the tutelage of a master manipulator of the tools of the trade—his father.
How does an erstwhile buyer and seller of properties in the city of New York parlay his portfolio of apartments and hotels into political capital? How does a paragon of capitalism become a paragon in politics? The transition from capitalist to politician began with his morphing from businessman to entertainer in his TV show, ironically called “The Apprentice.” Watching his performance a significant portion of the American public began to equate his pseudo-success in business and entertainment with an overall competence in any endeavor he might choose to undertake.
Aye, and there’s the rub my friends. A career in real estate or entertainment does not make a person competent to wield the tools of the trade in national politics. Nevertheless, our current (2019) president was “hired” by the American people as the chief executive of the United States before he had even started his apprenticeship in that “trade.” And now we can see what “on the job” training by an “unlicensed” chief executive looks like. Most of us would not hire an unlicensed plumber to fix the pipes in our house but have entrusted the welfare of our American community to an apprentice.
Insight # 52: Just because we made a poor choice in one presidential election cycle does not mean that we can’t learn to make better choices in the future selection of a U.S. chief executive.
Link:
- “We Can Do This” in The Human Community (2016), by Roy Charles Henry, in print and on this blog.
