Why Run for Office?

I have long maintained that it’s virtually impossible for an honest person to get elected in Seattle. When I first ran for a seat on the school board in 1999, it became apparent to me that public officials are essentially appointed in this corporate town.

Since then, things have only gotten worse. The bastards took away our blanket primary, moved the primary election date up a month and are now moving to all-mail voting. Let’s face it, Seattle elections are really no different than presidential elections. So what’s the point of running for office if the Seattle Mafia won’t let you get elected?

And why run for office when most eligible voters are hopelessly apathetic, or stupid, or too partisan (e.g. selfish) anyway? I had a tough time answering that question when I first ran for office. But now that I have a better grasp of the big picture, I can offer the following reasons:

Keep the Process Alive

The only thing more frightening than losing the right to vote is forgetting how to vote. After all, what good would it do us to regain the right to vote if people don’t know what to do with it?

Publicity

Publicity could be subdivided into personal and issues publicity. Publicizing oneself might seem arrogant, but name recognition is vital in getting elected in future campaigns. But publicizing ideas is even more important, and those of us who lack establishment connections have an important ally in the election process.

True, the media may stab us in the back and most public forums may be similarly rigged, but that statement in the Voters Pamphlet is worth its weight in gold. The Video Voters Guide is way cool, and the traffic on my websites always increases when I’m running for office.

Frankly, I find it hard to respect self-styled activist organizations whose members never even run for office. If they really cared about getting their message out there, they’d take a more public stand.

As they say, no guts, no glory.

Track Record

Running for office helps activists establish what I call a track record. It’s easy to tell people you want to fight global warming or save the rainforest. Indeed, such sinister anti-environmental assholes as George W. Bush and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels have made such claims.

But walking the talk is another matter. Running for office forces people (or, at least, should force them) to do a little more research and flesh out their issues. Candidates may be forced to answer tough questions—questions that might expose them as corporate operatives.

If I told you I was speaking out against derelict school principals before 1999, a critic might retort, “Prove it.” In response, I could simply refer them to this web page. Note that isn’t a web page on one of my websites; it’s a government website. Specifically, it’s a copy of the statement I submitted to the Voters Pamphlet during my first campaign for public office in 1999. Similarly, here’s proof that I was speaking out against both George Bush and Bill Gates at least as early as 2003.

(Actually, I think I attacked Bill Gates when I ran for state office in 2000, though I can’t find a copy of my Voters Pamphlet statement at the moment, and I launched my Jail4Bush in early 2002, I believe.)

In summary, my record as a candidate proves I’m not just another anonymous twit masquerading as an activist.

Accountability

If murderers, rapists, embezzlers and arsonists should be sentenced to prison, shouldn’t public officials who do even more damage to society be similarly punished? What about pResidents who preside over mass murder, rape and torture, or school board members who simply preside over the embezzlement or illegal diversion of millions of tax or school levy dollars?

Sadly, there is virtually no accountability for public officials in America today. About the closest we can get is re-election time, when candidates have traditionally been asked tough questions and derelict incumbents can be voted out of office.

I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll say it again: I can’t stop the Seattle Chamber of Commerce from appointing its carefully screened thugs to public office, but I’ll do what I can to make sure they don’t get appointed without a few scars. That’s one of the reasons I indulge in name calling. Words can be used as weapons, and I’ve learned that the more accurate or truthful the words, the more they hurt.

It’s called accountability; deal with it.

Educate Myself

Besides educating the public, I’ve learned that running for public office is a great way to educate myself. I was naive enough to believe that such “alternative” tabloids as the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger are on the people’s side until my first election campaign in 1999. Boy did that campaign open my eyes!

I also learned about rigged forums, phony activists, phony endorsements...well, let’s just say I’ve learned a lot of stuff that you can read about on my political websites. And I learn more every time I run for office.

Elections as Battles

Looking at the big picture, I like to compare the fight against the Seattle Mafia (or larger Corporate Mafia) to World War II. Imagine giving a pep talk to a group of soldiers who are about to storm the beaches of Normandy as part of the famous D-Day invasion.

Would you tell the soldiers this?:

In fact, most of those statements are true. World War II didn’t end immediately after D-Day, and many soldiers didn’t survive the terrible landings that have been commemorated in books, movies and countless memorials.

Yet D-Day marked a turning point in the war, which ultimately led to the Nazis’ defeat, after which we went on to defeat Japan, too. America and its allies saved the world from fascism, even though they lost many battles along the way.

Similarly, the Seattle Mafia will never be defeated by one individual or by a single election campaign. But it certainly won’t be defeated by doing nothing at all, either. It will only be defeated by a series of battles, which may take the form of elections, protests and maybe even armed rebellion. (As I recall, the American Revolution featured a little of all three.)

There’s one other analogy I want to make with World War II. The day after the United States declared war against Germany, thousands of American troops were air-dropped into Berlin, where they fought a desperate battle to capture the city.

Just joking. Obviously, the Allies had a lot of work to do before they could even send troops to Germany’s borders. They had to gather intelligence, for example. They also had to recruit troops and motivate them to fight.

Similarly, running for public office can be a good strategy for gathering information about the enemy, as well as educating the public and recruiting allies. Sadly, many Americans don’t even realize that we’re at war with our own government, which has been hijacked by corporations.

Personal/Spiritual

So what if I never live to see the fruits of my political labors? Even worse, suppose I could see into the future and discover that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Suppose the United States evolves into a fascist corporate plutocracy and super police state that lasts until it is finally destroyed by a coalition of nations that have tired of being bullied. Would I still run for office?

Of course; it’s simply the right thing to do. There’s a time and place for fighting, even when there is little likelihood of victory.

Imagine a parent with a child who’s dying of cancer. The doctors say there’s no hope of recovery.

If you were that parent, would you just throw up your hands and say, “Oh well, I guess there’s nothing we can do!”? Of course not. Any decent parent would continue fighting against impossible odds. They would consult other doctors and study the literature. They would stay by their child until the end.

I don’t have children of my own, but my students were like family. And I will never forgive the Seattle Mafia for shitting on them the way it did...and continues to do. Running for office is my way of saying I care.

In summary, there are many good reasons for running for public office. For me, election campaigns are merely an extension of the political activism that has become part of my lifestyle.

Can’t afford to donate money to my campaign? No problem! You can join the team by simply visiting Urban Dictionary > Seattle Mafia and clicking the yellow thumbs up icon , indicating you agree with my definition. Doing so will help publicize the fact that there IS a Seattle Mafia. If you’re working for the Seattle Mafia and want to click the thumbs down icon , that᾿s fine, too. Either way, you’re helping my campaign. :)