The Revolution of Congressional Race Qualifiers

Tiffany Chow

Prof. Aksoy

Integrated Project RSH

November 4, 2012

Dean's Essay #2

 The Revolution of Congressional Race Qualifiers

            In this day and age, running for a seat in the U.S. Congress is not as simple as having strong leadership and well-supported views. Owning business experience is also an essential factor in outplaying your opponents in the race. Running a business is not much different from running the government. If you have the knowledge of how a business environment works, this knowledge will not only give you an upper hand against people aiming for the same position, it will also be proof that you are suitable for the position and capable of dealing with situations related to business sectors once you've obtained a seat in Congress.

            While running for Congress, having business experience will give you an advantage over others who do not. Foremost, because of this experience, you will know how to appeal to the voters, as a business appeals to its customers. Similar to a business setting, the government seats are to a product sold by a company as voters are to consumers of the product. Therefore, if you already know how to deal with consumers, how to market to them, then you will also have knowledge of how to deal with people you want to vote for you. You will know how to choose a target market and aim for them. The four P's (price, product, place, promotion) also translate over easily. Essentially, you have to market yourself to the people as if you were a product in a company, trying to get them to choose you over your competitors. Having this knowledge of how to do so is the first step in a successful campaign. If you have the best leadership skills and the most impressive qualifications in the world and the public doesn't know about it, there is no competition there between you and the least qualified person who knows how to play himself up to the masses.

            Since having business experience gives you this upper hand, and since most everybody who runs for government has this experience, it is apparent to say that not only is it an advantageous qualification to have, it should be a required one for a fair competition for a seat in the U.S Congress. College graduates once had the advantage in obtaining jobs (or better positions) over those with lower levels of education; now the world has become one in which graduating from college is expected and almost required to survive in this economy. Just like that progression in history, now business experience is also a minimal requirement to compete with others in a government setting.