As many readers will remember, in 2001 Craig Benson, then the CEO of a company called Cabletron, ran for governor of New Hampshire as the Republican candidate and won.
He claimed during his campaign that his skill and success as a businessman would enable him to successfully govern New Hampshire. But government is a vastly different world than business, and Benson is now widely viewed as the worst governor in New Hampshire history. He was defeated by John Lynch in 2005, and when Cabletron began to face competition, it fell apart.
Donald Trump’s main argument as to why he would make a good president is, like Benson’s, his alleged business success. This “success,” like Benson’s, is at best dubious.
As his 1995 federal tax return makes clear, his business efforts from the beginning of his career through 1995 were a billion-dollar disaster. And because, unlike every other presidential candidate since 1970 he won’t voluntarily disclose his federal tax returns, we simply can’t evaluate his business results since 1995.
But even assuming that Trump has been a successful businessman, he, like Benson, totally lacks government experience and any understanding of the governmental process; he, like Benson, is arrogant and autocratic; he, like Benson, is a misogynist; and he, like Benson, is vengeful toward people who criticize him.
The lesson that we as New Hampshire citizens should derive from Craig Benson is simple: Don’t vote for Trump. Don’t let him do to the United States what Benson did to New Hampshire.
John and Martha Cunningham
Concord