There has been much discussion about the age of the presidential candidates in the news. This trivializes the more important issue of management style.
Ideologues such as Donald Trump surround themselves with sycophants who are not appointed for their content knowledge or competency, but merely because they are fellow ideologues. We have witnessed the disastrous impact of ideological administrations in state government with our governor and, in Anchorage with our former mayor. Loyalty pledges, the desire to control court appointees, and gutting education funding, along with the exodus of competent civil servants, are just a few of the sub-optimal outcomes at the state level.
At the municipal level, we saw incompetent and unqualified individuals appointed and the loss of knowledgeable employees unwilling to work for an administration more focused on ideology than getting the job done for the public.
We already witnessed this and more with the first Trump administration. His gross incompetence was kept somewhat in check by qualified civil servants — the same folks he has vowed to replace with loyalists this time around if given a chance. Although ideologues spout a populist message, or in Trump’s case just lie incessantly, they seldom deliver good government.
— Mark Wolbers
Anchorage
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