When I entered party politics, I had ambitions of eventually of entering public office — meaning becoming elected. But as my first year moved on, I came to realization that I was not “electable.” So I decided to stay in the back rooms, hoping that somehow my presence would help find good people who were electable.

While money does not buy an election, there is a financial threshold to enter politics and find electoral success (especially the US). That threshold is far too high for most people to participate in such a way that does not make them beholden to the big money donors. And there is another threshold to represent the party more than the constituents who voted.

On MEWE group I used to belong, the moderator posted videos of town councils in rural New Hampshire making their decisions. I was so impressed. The councilors were not well dressed, and they were not great speakers. There people were not electable by any modern sense. Yet their neighbors still elected them.

We need to get back to this.