Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Let me give you an idea of what being a candidate is like: first, it's not about you, it's about the Party. The Party has a big payroll, and you are their customer because The Party gets its money from your campaign. You don't know that at first, you think they're happy to get you because you are a good candidate and they think you have something to contribute. Wrong; they're happy to get you because you have your savings, your parent's savings, and lots of friends to beg for money. The Party then charges your campaign for their "help:" research, an office, a campaign manager, lots of line item stuff you're not quite sure how it will help but they assure you it will. They call you often to stress that you have to raise money, they provide you with 1000s of names to call, a number to call from, and they'll really pressure you for a start date. You and all the other candidates are basically a telemarketer business.

Losing candidates rarely run again because they're embarrassed; they've finally realized they were the fish in a high stakes poker game, and they owe their disappointed family, whose love they exploited to get money, an apology; plus, the adulation they imagined they'd receive as a candidate; their friends flocking to help, people stopping them on the streets, newspapers printing articles, never happened. Frankly, the post-defeat time can be devastating to a person's self-esteem. The reason that successful politicians are professionals who have never done anything else is because the people attracted to the lifestyle; the glad-handing, disingenuousness, and narcissism; is what it takes to win office.