Going lower won’t lift us out of the hole our reality TV president dug
Representing the star of such movies as “Bikini Kitchen” and “Hot Showers 6” has certainly gotten Michael Avenatti plenty of face time in the media. But as we’ve learned by now, the Tv/talk show/cable news jungle is not a particularly productive place to look for presidential candidates.
So it wasn’t exactly cause for cheers when Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ attorney, announced he was considering making a run for the White House.
Although he worked on a number of campaigns while employed with an opposition and media research firm run by former Obama Cabinet member Rahm Emmanuel, Avenatti has no legislative or military service on his record. His business experience is lackluster, too, and except for saying he would fight President Donald Trump (low) blow for (low) blow, he doesn’t have much in terms of bold ideas or unique solutions to problems.
In fact, his most obvious skill — an ability to draw attention to himself — is one he shares with Trump.
And we all know what happens when an unqualified self-promoter gets into the White House.
That’s where Avenatti’s potential campaign, which at one time might have been laughed off, goes from frivolous to disconcerting. Americans are already stuck with a president whose lack of qualifications and acumen show up constantly in the form of the revolving-door Cabinet, international-relations blunders and other forms of dysfunction. For another unfit candidate to follow Trump simply can’t happen if our democracy and standing in the global community are going to survive.
Granted, every presidential election produces candidates who don’t deserve serious consideration. But unlike those fringe dwellers, Avenatti got invited on ABC’S “This Week” talk show and also appeared at the Iowa Democrats’ Wing Ding party dinner, which is a proving ground for presidential candidates in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
This is beyond ridiculous. It’s potentially damaging to the nation.
Avenatti’s candidacy also is disconcerting because it smacks of an “anybody can do this job” mindset that has become all too prevalent in American politics. Decades of messaging by the Republican Party that the government is out to crush Americans through taxation and attacks on personal liberties has left many voters disdaining legislative and executive experience, a high level of education and other attributes that effective candidates tend to have.
That’s not to say a president or a congressional leader can’t come from the outside. Other types of experience can certainly prepare a person for a national leadership role. But before jumping into elections, prospective candidates owe it to their constituencies to think long and hard about whether they can serve those people competently.
Elected positions are about service, which means the question candidates ask themselves shouldn’t be “Can I win this position?” but rather, “Can I effectively do this job for my fellow citizens?” If the answer to the second question is either maybe or no, then candidates should seriously consider doing something else.
Nobody can know whether Avenatti could do the job he’s talking about seeking. But we’ve already been down a similar road to the one he wants to travel, and it hasn’t turned out well at all.