I guess it's not giving away too much location info to say that I live in Indiana's 5th Congressional District. Yeah, it's not jerrymandered at all, you can tell by the shape. Our elected representative is Dan Burton. I have a problem with this guy representing me on a number of levels.
1) Only 18% of his campaign contributions come from within his own state
2) He is one of the most conservative members of Congress
3) He's one of the thimerosol/vaccine alarmists
One person who knows this is the Secretary of the Hamilton County Libertarian Party, who at the moment is sitting in his robe slurping coffee and catching up on the news on a 10 year old Powerbook. The HCLP is always looking for candidates for office. Our district is so heavily Republican that a dead cat would be elected to office as long as his name appeared as Zombie Kitty (R). The only hope is the Libertarian party, which most people around here at least do recognize as being fiscally conservative (the fact that we're incredibly socially liberal seems to escape notice). A properly placed Libertarian could probably swing enough of the Democrat vote to get elected along with the demoralized Republicans who also happen to think Mr. Burton is a joke. This has not gone undiscussed with Mr. Melanistic Penguin and apparently the rest of the HCLP would just crap themselves with joy if I chose to run.
Why? First of all, even though I work for the pharmaceutical company that created thimerosol, for obvious reasons he can't possibly use it against me without looking like a complete tool. Second, I'm smarter and prettier than he is. We all know by now how important being pretty is to the conservatives, the difference here being that, unlike Caribou Barbie, I'm not a clueless moron. According to people who know me, I also present myself very well and I'm oddly persuasive. That's weird, but I guess it's true.
The reason I can't run is two-fold. One, getting out and talking to people would be very draining for me. Two, I might actually win. I've spent my entire life since I was 18 honing my career, but I'd have to kill it to go to Washington. Could I really do that? I don't know. A couple of years ago, that would have been a clear "no" but now my feelings are much less clear. Working in Corporate America is becoming an increasingly soul-crushing experience and, frankly, I wouldn't mind a change. But the bigger answer is that sometimes you've just got to stand up and do something. Cause a fuss and make a difference. How can I look at my kids and tell them I'm a responsible citizen when I'm too chicken shit to just run for office? That bothers me. It would be hard, but my original goal in life was to join the Air Force and become an astronaut, so that doesn't really bother me.
I'm gonna go hop on the bike and over-analyze some more. I have until April 15th to decide.
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