I liked your comment about wanting to run for the legislature, but never having much experience in "lower level" organizations.

I remember one politician having an impressive array of serving on various boards, which looked good on his political resume. But he seldom showed up for meetings.

Try as they might, political parties just cannot vet the people for public office. And the ones who really should be there take a look at the job and say "No way." I don't blame them.

Anyways, I figured all this out in 1992. We cannot get the people we really need to in government until we get rid of all the political parties.

Here is my essay on my alternative democracy:

https://medium.com/tiered-democratic-governance/the-tdg-essay-cf48e4b4a1eb

I hope your article goes further. Our lackluster politicians is a problem across all western democracies.