The Failure of Business Model Politics

Anonymous
The Failure of Business Model Politics

There are a large subset of American people who voted for Donald Trump because they figured a guy worth billions, running his own companies, investing, hands in real estate, etc. would be the perfect person to run what they felt was the biggest business in America; it's government. What they failed to realize in this analogy is that business and government aren't bedfellows.

I think this is largely the problem that Trump is facing now. He believes he's solely to be in charge of what he considers the business of America. When you run a company, you're the head dog in charge and as head dog, you control literally everything. When big, and even minute decisions need to be made, the contracts, the meetings, the go ahead or not, must come from the top down. You don't give the person sweeping the floors in the lobby a deciding vote and you certainly don't invite him or her to sit in on the meetings for that vote.

Not so for government. Government is for the people by the people. You the people (unless a Russian government steps in and tries to strong hold your vote that is) each get to vote to decide who you want to run the country. You elect people you feel have your best interests at heart to sit in on said meetings and do the work of running the government and if you, or others decide they are not fit, you also get to vote them out of office. It's not, how it has often been described, as a 'you don't like me, get over it;' that could be the very mantra that invites people to very much get over you and vote you out.

The Failure of Business Model Politics

But back to that person sweeping the floors in the lobby. This is a real person, not a commodity. They have real life concerns such as health care that actually are life and death and do matter. They aren't a stock you can trade away or a new building that you can acquire. These are people with families, who need food, water, housing, education, health care, work, etc. to survive. It's not enough to ignore these people as if their voice doesn't matter. You cannot continue to steamroll over people who don't agree with you, because those same people DO have a deciding vote at the head table. In business, you pick the people whom you feel will most agree with you and not cause a stir, but with government and it's people you represent, they don't have to agree with you. They don't have to do your bidding. They don't have to want what you want and there are no ifs, and or butts about it.

I think our current president struggles with this notion that his business model isn't working out in the government realm the way he envisioned it would. He almost at times seems absolutely confused by it's failures. His word is no longer 'the' law. A meeting won't always end with him getting exactly what he wants because he said so. There are all these people who have every right to question every single decision he wants to make. There are people who can and will, from the top down outwardly defy him.

When you are used to being all powerful, having to suddenly curb to the voices of millions of people or to even try to negotiate and work through things with your own party whom you feel should be 100% behind you no questions, can be a very hard pill to swallow. He's seeing a lot of push back from people with more experience in dealing in this realm, and I think this notion that he's going to come in and shake the foundation of Washington as a business tycoon using business model politics, isn't going to get him very far because government isn't a business he runs by himself and it never will be.

The Failure of Business Model Politics
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