JF

I think it throws a wrench into the idea of distinguishing between municipal services and the war on the Houthis is all.

Who has that idea? If you have a constituency, and this constituency says "the war on the houthis concern us greatly", then what are you waiting for, Sonny?

I mean, I kinda think "I" do have a constituency that's concerned about the free movement of goods and people across borders and don't want to compete with slaves. That's hard to deal with as a city council. If "we" (me and them) have to go through such channels, it's not ideal

I'm not saying you're wrong necessarily, just that this isn't really a particularly efficient way of getting people's needs addressed.

With all due respect, the fact that you think this is a meaningful criticism just confirms what I was saying. I would NEVER dream of saying that municipal politics is an efficient means of combating an alien invasion or whatever.

What I am saying - and it's frankly amazing that people find this point "controversial" - is that 1) learning the necessary skillset, 2) building your political power base starts at this level.

Like this is such an INCREDIBLY basic point to anyone whose interest in politics isnt just on the level of having an identity. I'm basically saying "if you want to have big muscles you probably have to lift some weights", or "to paint well you need to know perspective".

Ultimately, if you ever arrive at the level of "the big picture", rather than some podunk municipality somewhere, you'll find that your job is now just to balance 10.000 different podunk municipalities against each other, not directly addressing universal humanity or whatever.