I heard an interview with a former US Congressman this week on a podcast. Although I have political differences with him (and a general distrust of all douchebag politicians), I thought he was remarkably candid during the interview. I suspect it’s because he’s a former Trump supporter who is now anti-Trump and as such, is trying to milk whatever donations he can from the gullible public.
Nonetheless, I’ll paraphrase what he said when asked why Congressmen are so reluctant to leave office.
“When you are a Congressman, you are the most important person in every room you enter. You are the center of attention. People want to talk to you. With the exception of when you are in the room with the President, the spotlights on you. People have a really hard hard time giving up that identity.”
Here’s what I would like to add to his comments:
You have an in-house doctor and pharmacy. You have interns, pages, volunteers, and administrative staff – none of whom you have to pay for. You have a private gym, free transportation, multiple offices, and your needs catered to without costing you a dime.
You are in position to make millions from insider trading, lobbyist scams, and kickbacks – some legal, some illegal, but for which you will rarely be at risk of prosecution.
Your “work” includes lots of wining and dining, bullshitting, hamming up to cameras, hanging out with wealthy donors and basically being treated like royalty or a CEO, without having been born into royalty or having to have worked your way up to a CEO position.
So of course they don’t leave.
I was a little surprised about his “most important person in the room comment” because I was thinking that was reserved for the longest tenured congresspeople who hold the most power. But, as he explained, you’ll spend a lot of your time dealing with locals in your home state where a congressperson is a big fish in a little pond.
I wouldn’t mind getting the salary, benefits and insider trading perks of being in congress. But I’d probably not last a single term without wanting to strangle my coworkers. I like to make things happen, solve problems, be honest and be pragmatic. And I despise schmoozing, almost as much as I despise politicians.
I’d be a horrible fit.