The Favor Bank: Local Politics as a Path to True Power

National Politics is a Psy-Op Trap/Tar Baby - designed to distract you from wielding real power locally by cultivating real relationships with local shot-callers.

I was recently invited to a private dinner/soiree at a private home for an intimate meet-and-greet with Trump. Base cost of entry: USD$10,000, and access to VIP reception was another five-figure increment higher. Didn't attend, but it got me thinking more about our prevailing attitudes/attention directed to local versus national elections.

Nearly everyone has their priorities inverted - strongly opinionated about national elections, yet totally oblivious to the names and moral character of the elected regional power-brokers who run their local municipality.

Seething about the hypocrisies and sins of distant kingpins is a useless waste of your energy; it just deepen your own sense of disempowerment which prevent you from exploring the myriad of ways you as a middle-class citizen can exercise your agency.

How?

National elections suck up 99% of the oxygen in the minds of the masses (resulting in millions having strident opinions about who should be President, opinions which are largely downstream of siloed partisan psychological-operations campaigns which issue talking points to their respective NPCs.)

Yet most dissidents/voters who have such vociferous views on national politics have NO idea who serves on the city council or school board of the municipality in which they reside. The very shot-callers who directly influence the quality of your neighborhood.

This is a foolish and unforced error. But it is an error which can be easily remedied.

Especially in these tumultuous times, a wise citizen-dissident should be on first-name friendly basis with at least three or four of the 30 or so major decision-makers who run your city/county:

1. City councilman/alderman

2. Chief of Police (or their immediate lieutenants)

3. Chief of Fire Department (or their immediate lieutenants)

4. Mayor

5. District Attorney (or equivalent lead criminal prosecutor of your municipality)

6. City Manager/regional "CFO" who manages and disburses the millions of dollars collected from you and your neighbors through various taxes and levies.

7. Municipal judge

8. School Board committee member

"But I don't know any of these people! How do I possibly get to meet any of them?!" I hear many of you complain.

It's actually quite simple to anyone with a bit of initiative.

Nearly all of the above-mentioned regional power brokers are elected positions (or directly appointed by someone who face election pressure), and most municipal elections are won or lost by razor-thin margins.

During Election Season, a $50-$200 donation at one of their fundraising events or volunteering to help them canvass neighborhoods on their behalf will put you within handshake reach with nearly everyone of these regional decision-makers.

98% of municipal campaigns are starved for money and competent volunteers and if you show up offering both, you are no longer an anonymous part of the tax-cattle they oversee (sorry, this is the grim truth about how anyone in government sees the citizenry they don't know by name).

But with a few hours of competent volunteering for their campaign and/or a $200 donation, you are now someone they know by name, someone they want to keep happy.

Don't get too excited rubbing shoulders with the powerful. Keep your wits about you - politics is a dirty business and there are no paladins in this arena.

Hone your skill at sizing up people and learn to identify the most-honorable power players you meet during this quest to build mutually-beneficial relationships with them. Likewise, identify the vilest scum you want to see exiled from City Hall and explore ways to lend your support their immediate rivals/competitors - even if you don’t 100% align with their partisan priorities.

At the level of national elections, table stakes are five/six-figure checks, payable to shadowy organizations which "bundle" your donation so THEY get the credit/leverage of bringing in a single million+ dollar check to a major-party national candidate.

If you can't directly write a million+ dollar check donation to a campaign, you may as well not bother - but then again, if you're already wealthy enough that you can seriously consider these decisions, you don't need my advice.

If you aren't in the position to donate five-figure sums in support of your preferred political candidate - there are local campaigns (who directly influence the level and quality of your police protection, schools and municipal services) who'd be grateful for your $50 donation or volunteer hours.

It's an important shift in mindset - literally millions of dollars are spent every hour on sophisticated propaganda to rile up partisan segments of the population to hate national political figure X, or cover-up the criminal activities of national candidate Z.

You, with your one vote and the $50 you were budgeting to donate to your preferred national candidate, is utterly irrelevant to this process.

99%+ of national political "news" is junk food for your brain. Turn it off (or at least taper your consumption).

Instead, learn the names of who is on your city council, school board and other people making multi-million dollar decisions with your property taxes, and make sure they know YOUR name. This can be done on a middle-class income and the energy you expend on this endeavor will have a far-higher likelihood of improving the quality of your life.