Why you should run for office (seriously)

4/20/2011 4:47 PM EDT

We only have politicians an not leaders anymore. Since politicking has become a full time occupation politicians have become more and more disjointed from the people. It's kind of like when a good engineer becomes a manager. They forgot all about good engineering and make terrible managers.

4/20/2011 5:37 PM EDT

I am an EE who serves in a local elected office (City Council of our local city). But, I have watched the machinations of the national political business with interest and dismay for quite a while.

At the present time, I don't think that most people look for a reasoning decision maker as their Congress person or Senator. Most appear to want someone who supports a particular ideology. This is not unique to a particular geographical area or to a particular party. I hear people saying that they voted for X because he would "stick it to the national power structure", or Y because she is "pro-labor", or Z because Z is a "supporter of business". I'm sorry, but this is not the environment for rational engineers.

Further, the cost of running for Congress or Senate is totally absurd. No ordinary person, engineer or not, can afford to even dream about it.

Jim Wagner
Tangent, Oregon

4/20/2011 9:05 PM EDT

I would have to agree with Jim: the cost to run and the loss of sanity would kill most engineers. That said, if it were possible engineers would bring much needed analysis to law making and rules.

4/21/2011 11:40 AM EDT

You can run for U.S. House of Representatives for a $100 donation and participation in the process:
http://goooh.com

The only other requirement they have is that you will answer political choice questions and sign a contract promising that you will resign if you vote against your answers. Of course, to the engineer's mind, this is flawed in that you cannot make the decision based on information that you may learn later, but the point is that there are people out there trying to change the 2-party election process.

4/21/2011 1:13 PM EDT

That's a great site, Cliff. And while we're traditionally a throw-the-bums-out kind of populace, I think we've hit a point where we don't have ENOUGH career politicians. If you're new and short-termed, how can you build relationships and trust that are the basis of compromise? I don't have an answer for that.

I'd be interested in Jim Tangent's perspective there... Jim?

4/21/2011 1:34 PM EDT

The entire Chinese politburo is composed of people trained as scientists and engineers. It shows.

4/21/2011 1:42 PM EDT

Engineers are exactly the wrong kind of people to be politicians because we can and want to solve problems. We also hold strong ethics and morals. Just look at what was uncovered here in Montreal, Quebec recently. A team of people spent $30 million over the course of 10 years "studying" what to do with a 1km stretch of highway. There's no way a proper engineer could sleep at night knowing that this is going on. Politicians would pat themselves on the back for getting away with this for 10 years.

4/21/2011 1:45 PM EDT

When I was in school (last year) a couple of friends and I talked about how Engineers would make a great contribution to politics in Mexico, we are used to work solving problems taking into account the variables involved and optimizing resources, we even came up with a slogan for our party: "Debugging the System", I shared the idea in a post in facebook just for fun, I received good feedback

4/21/2011 2:18 PM EDT

@Esaias, that's a great party name... I think as we get closer to the elections we should invite readers to create their own parties with clever names and realistic or just funny policy platforms.

At least that way we can have some fun and we won't run into @emmsys sad-but-true barrier to entry for engineers (strong ethics and morals)... I'm still laughing over that line!

4/22/2011 12:57 PM EDT

Well, there was one physicist in the last congress, but he was defeated by a right-wing pinhead Republican, unfortunately... Hopefully, we can remove this idiot (Randy Hultgren) in the next election.

4/22/2011 9:13 PM EDT

Two US Presidents were engineers, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter. According to http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/apr/11/famine-casts-herbert-hoover-more-favorable-light/ "Hoover’s pre-presidential image was that of a rather heroic engineer diplomat who saw government intervention and American know-how as all but invincible. Hoover had organized famine relief for starving Belgians during World War I and saved millions of Europeans from starvation after the war."

The US should've listened to Jimmy Carter about energy policy http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1010-27.htm

4/23/2011 12:00 AM EDT

Most of the people that go into politics are soft sciences where a person can normally get away with saying 2+2=5 that make people happy (i.e. sales pitches). Engineers and other hard sciences do not have that luxury of such thinking because reality tends to curtail such "thinking" by not working. This results in engineers and other hard sciences being the proverbial wet towels in political discussions and thus do not get elected. As seen by the above numbers in the chart.

4/23/2011 12:10 PM EDT

President Obama's decision is good with forming his cabinet with Enginees from all disciplines.Also doctors,biologists,economists,lawyers,sportians,mathematicians,experts from physics,chemistry to be included in the cabinet.

4/26/2011 12:06 PM EDT

For an example of what you would be up against, you can study the "process" of education as implemented at any U.S. school. Try to identify the methods of feedback in the system, and see if that is what you think of as a rational, functional and productive way of doing business.