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If it's so bad, why did the author run for Congress at all? I wish (s)he had explained their motivation to run for office.
by lovelearning 12y ago
If it's so bad, why did the author run for Congress at all? I wish (s)he had explained their motivation to run for office.
- CurtMonash 12y agoIt's a natural mistake. In the 1980s, I had a friend who wanted to be Senator because he thought it was the best job in the world. Seriously. What's more, he had a background in really understanding this stuff from childhood -- he was Richard Neustadt, Jr. And he'd been working toward it all his life. What actually happened is that he died in a tragic accident, so I never had a chance to discuss how his views might have changed. :(
- johan_larson 12y agoThere is a progression from idealism to disillusion to professionalism to monetization. You start out with high hopes of making a real difference. That runs smack into a complicated and compromised system, which makes you disillusioned. You try hard to figure things out and do useful things. Eventually, you understand how things work and how to make the system work for you, which makes you a political professional. Those skills are very valuable and you see your peers making a killing with them. Not wanting to be the local chump, you use the skills to your own advantage, which is monetization.