How should we evaluate elected officials?
Chris Cillizza, in a recent CNN video, addresses the prevailing disenchantment with Vice President Kamala Harris among the Democrats and everyone else. He said, “Harris is not anywhere near where she and her team hoped to be as she finishes up her first year as vice president.”
This CNN video raises the question: “How should we evaluate elected officials?”
Qualifications for the high office
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On the one hand, when an elected official shares the same values as the voter, the voter tends to be lenient on the official, willing to accept the official’s flaws and failures. Further, moral-driven or faith-based-values-driven voters may use personal values as yardsticks while judging elected officials.
On the other hand, people elected to high office could be judged using a long list of practical qualifications and skills. Among them are three essential qualifications and skills associated with successful elected officials: Insight, Accomplishments, and Leadership (IAL). These three qualifications and skills will serve well any person elected to high office.
In the current era of critical race theory-inspired ideas, some people in high office were elected NOT because they exhibited the three qualifications and skills above but were elected because they satisfied at least three “CRT qualifications,” namely: Race, Color, and Gender (RCG), which are based on untested and unproven CRT hypotheses on qualifications.
Elected officials need insight
Insight is revealed when he or she understands, interprets, reasons, and explains a complex issue for the benefit of the public, which lacks insight or needs help in understanding a complex issue or problem. An example of a complex issue that has dragged on for years is our national problem on the Southern border. The Southern border crisis and its solution demand a degree of insight on the part of our national leaders to explain the problem and its solution to the average American to grasp it.
President Abraham Lincoln was a man of insight. Upon assessing the troubled nation during his time, he insightfully declared slavery must go, whatever the cost. He rallied the nation behind the cause and then led the country to end slavery.
Elected officials need accomplishments
Merely being elected again and again does not qualify as competent accomplishments for an elected official. President Lincoln’s election as an accomplishment pales in comparison to his accomplishments as president. The media and the public look for competent accomplishments after one’s election. The border crisis gives a timely opportunity for accomplishments for our VP.
Elected officials need leadership skills
The debacle surrounding American withdrawal from Afghanistan is an international display of failed American leadership that taints the president as well as the vice president.
President Lincoln led the nation through a bloody civil war using insight and leadership. Many laid down their life for a noble cause under his leadership. They bought his insight on the problem and its solution — the bloody war.
CRT qualifications: Race, color, and gender
CRT-inspired candidates based on Race, Color, and Gender (RCG) may be adequate for winning elections but may NOT be sufficient to elect the kind of officials, who have the insight to understand and explain complex national problems, produce competent accomplishments, and provide leadership once in office.
This prompts the question: In the era of CRT-inspired election victories, what are the chances of electing Lincoln-like officials with insight, capable of accomplishments, and endowed with leadership skills?
What should you expect from elected officials?
Vice President Kamala Harris's recent self-analysis was she is not getting out of D.C. enough. Does this self-analysis and expectation of our VP meet your expectations for the office? How does this square with the three expectations for elected officials described earlier: insight, accomplishment, and leadership?
Looking for an exciting mental exercise? Think about this: What would President Lincoln do about the Southern Border crisis if he is the president or VP today? Would he ignore it, fix it, or lead us to a better solution?
Finally, regardless of how we vote, for the sake of our nation, let us all wish that our VP accomplishes the very best for the country, while she serves as our elected official.
Paul Swamidass, PhD, is Professor Emeritus, Harbert College of Business, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA. After three decades of teaching and publishing as a business management professor in different universities, he retired from Auburn University in 2016. Occasionally, he teaches Biblical Leadership for Kerusso Institute for Global Leadership. His newest book is Greater Things: The Qualifications of a Biblical Leader, Vide Press, 2020. He and his wife, Nimmi, worship at Redwood Chapel Community Church, Castro Valley, CA.
