Flaw In The Political System Hurts Travel

Every four years, I celebrate my own personal holiday around this time. It comes after Halloween and before Thanksgiving. It comes after national Election Day. It’s a celebration, of sorts. No more campaign ads, no more falsehoods, no more lies, no more stretching the truth. It’s almost liberating. I certainly have to spend less time cleaning out my email inbox, that’s for sure.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think we have the best system in the world although the merits of the Electoral College are up for debate. So this isn’t some political rant, or screed, or diatribe.

Rather, it’s a nitpick about a flaw in the system.

There’s just no consistency in appointed positions like the heads of the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration. It’s not that these are inept people, or unqualified or not intelligent enough for the job. They aren’t; they are good men and women. But let’s be frank here – they are like the King or Queen of England. They are figureheads.

That’s why nothing gets done.

The scales of justice might move slow, but politics moves at a tortoise’s pace. Just when they are ready to implement policy and initiate change comes a change in administration and they are out of a job.

Now the process has to start all over again.

The safety and regulation of the travel industry should transcend politics. But these people are at the whims of those who appointed them. That’s why you will probably see more mergers in the airline business under president-elect Trump than you would in the Biden administration. The former is known to be very business-friendly; the latter had a reputation for being unfriendly to businesses.

I’m not advocating that these appointments should be for a lifetime but they certainly should be longer than four years, or the change in administrations, to get things done. Here’s a perfect example – it’s been too long since we heard anything about the lack of air traffic controllers.

The bottom line is, let’s not play politics with the oversight of our travel industry.