What Does It Really Mean to Challenge the Status Quo?
Monthly Archives: March 2020
BPA’s Voters Guide
BPA’s Guide for eliminating “want to be” candidates for public office in the age of Covid-19
It seems like in this 2020 election cycle everybody wants to run for office. But in my previous brief experience in Human Resource and running for public office myself, I’d like to share a few observations about how not to make the wrong selection of a candidate. Of course this is not an all-inclusive list and others could add to it. However, it is a good starting guide. And although this is presented here in the negative context, just reverse each point and frame it in the positive context to find the perfect candidate.
Don’t vote or hire anybody who appears to:
- Not have any substantial knowledge, skill or ability to do the job
- Be desperate for a job
- Screwed up in their last few positions
- Have shown a propensity to violate the public trust
- Sell themselves too hard
- Be self-absorbed and full of themselves
- Have no real record of individual achievement
- Have stirred up the mess at their last few positions
- Have demonstrated a shallow intellect
- Be known as a single-issue candidate
- Be willing to settle for mediocre results
- Be all things to all people
- Be only transactionally committed to making change
- Not be able to handle their personal life
- Be anxious to kiss ass
- Show shades of a Con-Artist
- Be a perpetual candidate
- Not worked a real job a day in their life
- Talks much shit but rarely listens for real
- In most cases, judge a book by its cover.
- Be willing to subjugate their subordinates
- Not learn from negative experiences
- Be oblivious to others need and aspirations
- Have a scheming disposition
- Have shown up from outer-space with no community presence
- Be seeking the office out for revenge
- Not be able to see the big picture or has little vision
- Be seeking public recognition or adulation to the extreme
- Always be riding someone else’s endorsement or record of achievement
- Have proven they can’t judicially handle public power or influence
- Be extremely risk-averse and/or wishy-washy
- Be trying to fake it until they can make it
For Me Pure Political Anguish
Elizabeth Warren is out and I am sad because she represented the best of all the candidates running for President of these United States of America. Why? Because she has “Balls”. But not only does she have “Balls”, but of all the candidates, she combined intelligence with compassion rarely seen in any politician. And unlike some of the other candidates, she carried her own water. She wasn’t dependent on Obama or anybody else to make her case. She had the most authentic combination of strength and humility wrapped in a deep sense of fairness for those oppressed by the current system. Her work on the Consumer Protection law has demonstrated the capacity to challenge the system and win. Sadly, America lost out today because it passed on an opportunity to select the most overall capable person to lead the country. She tried to take the middle lane but her calculation did not fully take into account how Trump has traumatized the country and poisoned the well. After Trump, the country is choosing safety and conformality over challenge and change. But for the sake of us all, I hope she continues to do what she is noted for, the courage to “Persist”.