By Stephen Macaulay
Let’s imagine someone who was a tremendous car enthusiast from an early age. The kind of person who could identify cars by the shape of their taillights long before she was old enough to drive. Who had posters of cars on her bedroom walls rather than a poster of the contemporary heart-throb. Who drew picture of cars in her notebook rather than paying a whole lot of attention to the social studies class. Who couldn’t wait to get a license.
Given this love of cars and inattention to homework, when she graduated high school, college wasn’t in the cards and getting a job in a car plant seemed, well, not particularly appealing.
But her uncle happened to run a car dealership, so she got an entry-level job as a porter (doing things like moving cars around the lot, washing them), and with time, a desk and an in-store networked computer on it. A position as a sales person.
The love of cars was no less passionate. Doodles of cars on the margins of agendas during weekly staff meetings echoed those of years gone by.
So here’s the question: If you were in charge of design staff at General Motors or Ford, would you hire this person as a lead designer on the next car program that was absolutely key to the prospects of General Motors or Ford, a program that could almost literally make or break the company?
Which brings us to Donald Trump’s selection of individuals for his next administration.
- Elise Stefanik, U.N. ambassador. You’d think that to be a diplomat you might need some diplomatic experience. Nope. What’s more, Stefanik has spoken out about defunding some U.N. agencies and even the U.N. itself. Wouldn’t that be like being vegan and getting a management position at McDonalds?
- Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator. Zeldin has an impressive resume, if you were looking for someone who knows about law; when he was 23 he was sworn into the New York State Bar, making him the youngest ever at the time. Or if you were looking for someone who knows military issues; he was in the 82nd Airborne and is a lieutenant colonel. He was a four-term congressman and on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. Environmental experience?
- Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary. Noem went to Northern State University from 1990 to 1994 but didn’t graduate because in 1994 she took over running the family farm and ranch after her father died. The most important industry in South Dakota, of which she is currently governor, is agriculture: corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa, as well as livestock production. Noem, then 39, was elected to the South Dakota House in 2007, where she served until 2010. In 2011 she was elected to the U.S. House, where she served until 2019, having won the South Dakota governorship in 2018. No, she isn’t being selected for Secretary of Agriculture.
While it might be thought that based on this the woman who wants the job as car designer would be a shoo-in, that’s actually not the case.
She has too much experience.