The movement of business interests into the halls of government is not a new phenomenon. However, the belief that government should be run with a sort of “business mentality” is a stark contrast to what we are used to seeing in the United States in the past 230 years.

For decades, generations even, the government was expected to do whatever it could to provide for its people. Now, it is expected to do whatever it can to support businesses and create more corporate profits. Instead of having our soldiers fight our wars, we outsource the job to private firms. Instead of having state-run banks oversee lending and provide to borrowers when necessary – as is the case with the Bank of North Dakota – we have motley assortments of private banks working without much of the regulation needed to keep them afloat.

George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was the first president whose only claim to academic fame was a prestigious M.B.A degree. After having generals, doctors, scholars, and attorneys at the head of the nation for its entire history, the United States was being led by someone groomed for a Board of Directors.

According to Newsweek, there is now a growing crop of “CEO politicians.” For the most part these candidates are found in the Republican Party, but the Democrats still have versions of their own – such as former Congressman Harold Ford, who until recently worked as an executive with Merrill Lynch.

The wealthy have always been involved in government. Now, however, being wealthy is seen as an important prerequisite. Candidates like Mitt Romney, and California gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman, trump their experience in the board room as an infallible tool for governing.

Unfortunately that is often not the case. A successful, rich, and powerful executive need only to make a demand or request and parts are put in motion. In government that is almost never the case. The President of the United States couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on his appointment choices for weeks due to Senator Shelby’s grandstanding for earmarks.

Former Goldman Sachs executive Jon Corzine took office as the Governor of New Jersey with fanfare, but it was immediately brought back to earth. The government shut down amid budget problems in 2006, just after he took office, and despite making popular and progressive reforms a huge part of his platform he was unable to do enough. He proposed increased education funding, abolition of the death penalty, and a stabilization of employee pensions. Yet, in 2009 he was taken down by public unrest at the height of the economic crisis which he had no part in creating. As a former bank executive he was seen as “part of the problem” and taken out of office by a conservative Republican challenger Chris Christie (he had crushed the opposition in 2005).

Most CEOs at failing companies have survived just fine during this crisis. In fact, many Wall Street bankers have rewarded themselves handsomely just as they continued layoffs and cutbacks among their staff and employees. When a company is flailing in the wind, executives can easily blame and encumber employees. When a government is flailing in the wind, executives can easily be shown the door.

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