finally: depending who you ask, there are somewhere between 30,000 and 500,000 elected positions in the US, which is a staggering number
but if good, thoughtful, caring people (i.e. you) don't run, these positions are almost all won by party hacks or well-funded pro-business conservatives or tea-party types who want to burn the government down
in short: if you're not thinking about running for some kind of government position in this day n age, you should be!
@mrgah I'm independent (super lefty though) but I still love this idea: https://www.runforsomething.net/
well you know, state legislative races are usually cheap to run (under $10k), decided by hundreds or a couple thousand votes, and state legislatures often meet part time so that people can work normal jobs
(and the demands of local positions are even less)
I mean, why not run for the state legislature as a lefty independent?
@mrgah believe me, I've considered it more than once. My first career was as an Alinsky-style community organizer, and you can't shake that off. Maybe when my life gets a little simpler...
@djcp
for me, it's the fact that my family has been involved in state politics forever, and so I grew up around state legislators, and always felt like the state legislature was a plausible thing to do
(unlike the US House, where you spend so much time fundraising/posturing/whatever)