Confessions of a Political Road Warrior

Former boss, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman announcing re-election.

Philadelphia. New York. Bethlehem. Wilkes-Barre. Trenton. Nyack. Washington, DC. Harrisburg. Shamokin. Pottsville. Hazleton. Scranton. Stroudsburg. Allentown. Back home in Easton. This is a taste of what my travel schedule has been like for the past couple of months. From swearing-ins that began in December, through petitions to get people on the ballot, and probably through April or June primaries, my life will be crazy busy. I went into the consulting world after the 2015 elections, and consulting can be lucrative, provided you are willing to work pretty hard to make it so. There are trade-offs though. Some are good, some are bad. Here's a few confessions of mine about the business:

1. No, it's not glamorous. I'm serious, unless you think eating a Wawa hoagie in your car for lunch, between meetings with two different clients is a "Hollywood lifestyle." The hours are long, you're not writing State-of-the-Union speeches or coming up with new, cutting edge policies all day, and often times even the candidates don't appreciate the work you do. 
2. The people can be really petty. I'm talking about the colleagues. In a business where ass-kissing takes many people as far as actual ability and merit, the hired help still seems intent on tearing each other down, very often. To be real for a second, I don't know anyone who actually worked on a campaign who I wouldn't recommend for any other job in society- these are the hardest working people alive. They are working, and plotting, even when you think they are asleep. I don't get the need for self-promotion and tearing down others, but it still seems to happen often.
3. This life strains almost every relationship you have. I don't know how people manage to hold onto marriages and relationships, let alone friendships, on this schedule. Sometimes you're just too busy to spend the five minutes you need to spend talking to someone to make them happy. You really have to try hard, and even then things might become strained.
4. Most of the people are really different. First off, I'm not going to call my colleagues weird, even if having passion is weird. Second off, I'm saying different as a good thing. It's great to meet smart, passionate, engaged people in the process. They are, for the most part though, different than the rest of society. They would rather talk tax policy than the ball game last night. God bless them for caring, but it's a bit jarring still for me.
5. Politics are really diverse. I'm a white, straight, somewhat-Catholic, suburban raised, male. That makes me part of the traditional "majority" in this country. It also makes me odd in politics. Perhaps this is because people like me have not needed passion (it's great for most to live ignorantly in a rigged system), and everyone else has. Politics has been great to me, in that it has given me a more diverse group of friends, and exposed me to different perspectives. I doubt I'll ever be a full-time "Social Justice Warrior," but the experience of campaigning has opened my eyes to many issues I would have never treated as important. This may be the best benefit of the job, actually.
6. You fight more with the people you agree with. The most brutal, nasty, long fights are not between Democrats and Republicans, like the public likes to think. They get mad about a month or two of negative ads. The internal fights in each party are far worse, last much longer, and often times play out behind the scenes before the public sees them. Remember, some candidates spend years preparing for a major primary, and jousting behind the scenes for the support they need to win them. You don't start fighting the other party's winner until you're in the general election.
7. Our rhetoric is actually way over-heated. "So and so is the devil." We hear that kind of talk in politics all the time. We spend so much time demonizing opponents that we almost de-humanize them. Most Republicans really aren't nasty, awful people. I have sat down and had drinks with Republican operatives and elected officials, and believe it or not, they are human. I have friends I grew up with who are Republicans, and I don't think they are all racist, heart-less, crazies. A lot of this is operatives preying on the passions of our activists, and trying to convince them that this is "the most important election of our lifetime," every time, so we can pry their money out of them. We should swear off several things at the outset- any references to our opponents as Hitler, saying the opposition hates America, and ever agreeing that "the whole system is corrupt." We feed these awful tendencies with this language.
8. I feel bad for my car. No, for real. With all the travel, I pack the miles onto my poor Mazda. It gets cleaned every few months inside, it usually gets the oil changes it needs, but late, and I've had more than one blown tire this year. This car's life-span has been cut way down by my job.
9. You don't get rich doing this, at least not quick. You want to make a lot of money? Politics isn't the field for you, unless you're patient. I suppose if you own a firm that makes campaign commercials, you might do alright. Same for direct mail. Stick around long enough as a manager, finance director, or communications director, and you'll start to make good money. You won't make the kind of money you would in the "private sector" though, at least not for the same experience.
10. Politics can be an adrenaline rush unlike any other. I grew up as an athlete. My sports of choice were wrestling and track by high school, super-individual sports where you have to be very competitive to survive. My athletics career ended at the outset of my freshman year of college, when I was diagnosed with mono and decided not to come back. Not so coincidentally, my political career began then with my first internship. That was 14 years ago, and the competitive juices have ebbed and flowed, I have to admit. The rush of the final month of a competitive campaign though is unlike anything else you'll get to experience. Debate nights, election nights, major fundraisers, and getting out the vote is amazing. I'm not sure I'd have any real purpose in life if not for that part of this. The will to compete is the greatest gift this business gives, and it's something I'd suggest anyone who wants to get in it, should have.