This reminds me of a recent conversation I had with a friend. We were discussing some of the crazy things politicians do (corruption, sex scandals, etc.) as wel

This reminds me of a recent conversation I had with a friend. We were discussing some of the crazy things politicians do (corruption, sex scandals, etc.) as well as some of the batshit crazy legislation they come up with (such as this bill), and this led to a discussion on what type of person runs for political office (at least in the US). We generally agreed that many, if not most, politicians probably suffer from some form of megalomania mixed with a strong desire for power over others. These are not positive personality traits in general, but especially not for people in positions of power. Intelligent, well-meaning, balanced people generally do not seem to suffer from these traits and perhaps that's why we seem to have a lack of them in office (since they don't run in the first place). This seems like a fundamental problem at the very core of US politics, and I'm not sure what could be done about it. We obviously can't restrict people from running for office on the basis of personality faults, and we certainly can't force people who would make better candidates to run (especially given how subjective that is). Disclaimer: This is all obviously conjecture, and I don't have any sort of extensive knowledge in political science or anything related.