Why only the rich run for office: Part 1

How time flies, and then crawls, and then flies again –

This is an interview that I (apparently!) did in February of 2024. It was a great one, and I had been saving it for the big conclusion of my story arc, but times have changed. With nomination.day still in the air (I'll be pushing it all month), I thought this was the perfect time to bring it up. I talked with Duke professor of political science Nick Carnes about who runs for office, who should run for office, who wins when they run, and more. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Why We Don’t Have Working Class Politicians, w/Prof. Nicholas Carnes: Part 1 - The Best of All Worlds

Nicholas Carnes is a professor of political science at Duke, where he studies the reasons there are so few politicians with working class backgrounds, what consequences that has for the country, and what we might be able to do about it. We talk ab…

Buzzsprout

I understand that with concentration camps opening on American soil, elections might not be the most emotionally satisfying thing right now, and I know that a country already skeptical of public office is unlikely to have become more enamored in the last six months. But if they've done anything, the Republicans have revealed the truly awesome extent of the powers of American government – in a way that the Democrats never really have, in my lifetime. And this only solidifies my conviction that we must, must, must take control of it ourselves. Not only to wrest power from a now fully fascist administration, but to use those same powers to make American lives better. Which, unavoidably, means thinking about elections. Who is in them, who wins them, what they do once they've won, and why.

If this framing suits your mood better, as it often does mine, remember elections are a revolution. Scheduled, structured, bureaucratic and sometimes even boring, but no less transformative, and no less radical. The single most powerful act of nonviolent resistance, which is in turn the most powerful strategy we can be using. (More on this soon.) We must, must, must, be ready for them.

So really, seriously – think about who know, who would be better in office than the people who are there now. The answer might easily be every single person you know, but if you nominated even one or two of them, theirs could be the butterfly wings that one day brush away a dictator. nomination.day Until then, don't be safer than you need to be, stay brave, and I hope you enjoy the interview.