I will never vote for a businessman again.

[Caliman73]

30. Welcome to DU. We do nuance here.

There is a difference between being a business owner and a businessman. Business owners are typically people who wanted to provide a service, work for themselves rather than for a corporation, and then perhaps have become successful enough to consider the cost and sacrifice it takes to run for public office.

Businesmen (and this includes women as well) are often people who are CEO's of major corporations or of family businesses (Koch Industries) that think that running an administration is "just like running a business".

I am sure that there are business owners that have become decent public servants. There has not been a Businessman that has ever been a good President.

You are correct that being in a certain profession doesn't translate into being good or bad at anything else. The problem is, as I stated, that when you have the mindset of a CEO, who is adapted to making decisions based on maximizing profit and that is how you plan to approach government (efficiency and profit) then you have already dug yourself a hole. Government does not exist to turn a profit. While efficiency and cutting waste is important, government is not designed to be efficient, it should be designed to administer the public good and general welfare to the most constituents possible. Sometimes constituent groups have VERY different ideas about what that means and priorities pull you in many different directions. A good President has to know when to lead personally and when to surround themselves with the most qualified team of advisers and and cabinet positions and LET THEM DO THEIR JOB.

Democrats as a matter of history (especially in modern times) understand that the above is the function of government, whereas Republicans think that government exists only to secure the ability of businesses to maximize profits. They say that when businesses do well, the fruits of labor are spread out (by some miracle) to the populace. They are full of shit. As we have seen, when big business does well, the major shareholders do very well, the CEOs and vice presidents do well, but the average worker and society as a whole does not.

That is what is meant by "not voting for any businessman".