In 1967 Jimi Hendrix asked “Are you experienced?” Ironically, that was the summer of love, the brief break in the course of human events where hippies ruled the earth—or a very small corner of it. Roughly 75, 000 youths descended at Haight-Ashbury cross street in San Francisco that summer. It lasted barely six months, ending with a proper funeral on October 6, 1967, but many were inclined to quit their jobs, stop working for “the man,” forsake the capitalist greed, commune with nature (and each other), turn in their experience and what and where it had gotten them.
School of hard knocks
In my experience, experience is not all it's cracked up to be. Employers look for ability, the return of a clean background check, a willingness to take direction, a work ethic, and for the more discriminating ones, a colorless face and a fit mind and body. They look for someone who will not rock the boat, make waves if discrimination is intuited, or sue for wrongful termination. Experience helps, but I would put it at the bottom of the resume, maybe even as a footnote. I was experienced when applying for jobs, opportunities to work for the man (who might now be a woman, although I think “the man” was really a metaphor, or euphemism, for the establishment) and it had no cache, I was not instantly called for an interview, much less called or emailed to convey disinterest.
Is there an I in ineptness?
The world of professional politics, at the federal level, has set the bar of experience at an all time low with this administration. Take HUD secretary Ben Carson. He was a neruo-surgeon. I fail to see a connection here. Carson has, on multiple occasions, disturbingly and humiliatingly, proven himself to be derelict of his job—even after a year of the experience gained on the job. One would think he might pick something up from just being there. For a noted surgeon, not too bright. And then there is the POTUS himself who got his job with no experience at all in government, the military, student body, anything that might be called on as skills useful for the job. He was chosen partially I'd say for his vast lack of experience over a nominee who had more experience than any other in history. What tone has this set in America? What has the past three years of Trump pulling anyone out of the swamp, whose only asset may be loyalty and a willingness to lie, said for the coveted charge of needing experience?.
Many presidents have had military experience. Washington, Grant, Taylor, Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, to name a few. Contemporary presidents have served in the military beginning with Kennedy. Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and both Bush's have served in the military. Were it not for the nuclear reactor experience Carter brought from his years in the navy, three-mile island would likely have been much more of a disaster.
Alfred E. Newman shall lead the way
When Pete Buttigieg, who became mayor of South Bend, IN at the age of 29, he hung the experience required caveat out to dry. I think winning that young with virtually zero experience in government as a gay man in a state governed by Mike Pence is proof that experience is not necessarily required. Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar is awfully quick to denigrate him, castigating him as a “newcomer like Trump.” Insults like that are hard to find. Obama, even without the time in the senate, was more qualified. Buttigieg is a Rhode scholar, a Harvard graduate. He is an eight-year veteran of Afghanistan and worked on the campaign of John Kerry before becoming mayor. He came out gay in 2015 and was reelected with 80 percent of the vote. At age 38 he may not be ready for president, but certainly vice president. It is high time for a woman to sit in the oval, and that is not Klobuchar. It is Elizabeth Warren who is laser focused on her plans and policies, rarely coming up to cut down her opponents.
In 2016 Clinton would not let us forget that she was secretary of state, that she had been in on the Bin Laden raid, that she had been a FLOTUS, and that she had begun her career working on the Childrens' Defense Fund. I saw this praise singing as a turn-off, and evidently so did thousands of others, some waffling Republicans who voted for Trump. Or Democrats who voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, a vote that might as well have gone to Trump. We can google, we can see what these people have done. It is in this arena, this level of politics, where I see the over emphasis of experience to do more harm than good. If a candidate exudes confidence, does not need to repeatedly state what they do (or do not) bring to the table, they are electable.
Are you experienced? No, well, you might have what it takes to be leader of the free world. Times have changed, bars have been adjusted accordingly, and thresholds of tolerance for ineptness at the highest office in America is off the charts. Whoever the Democrats put into the fray this summer to contest a man full of himself must be ethical. With that tacit quality alone, they will appeal to millions of voters who are weary from three and a half years in the absence of ethics. They need to be able to win in key swing states (WI, MI, PA, OH) that went red in 2016. They need to get the female, black, Hispanic, Latino, and LGBT vote. In other words, experience is far from paramount. Electability is. The candidate with the best chance of getting at least 90 percent of the VAP has a shot at beating Trump—not who has the most experience.
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