I don't think Romney was necessarily giving his honest opinion on Tesla. He was running for president and environmentalists = hippie communists, so of course he's going to publicly hate on Tesla.
Comparing strategic DOE loans in energy to Stalin and Mao is going a bit far, btw.
Hmmm. Russian state-owned enterprises did not end with Stalin, and Chinese state-owned enterprises did not end with Mao. Many of them continue through to the present day and are not setting the world on fire.
I should note that I agree that Romney probably did not know much about Tesla besides the name. But most politicians don't know much about technology. Last I looked, I believe we have only one scientist in the entire House of Representatives (Rush Holt, D-NJ?).
> But most politicians don't know much about technology. Last I looked, I believe we have only one scientist in the entire House of Representatives (Rush Holt, D-NJ?).
I wish everyone who thought, "I wish people in office were more like me" actually ran for office. That's the best way to get people like you in office. Age requirement for the House is only 25.
Approx 700k people in most congressional districts.
I've actually ran in and won an election at the local level back when I lived in massachusetts. So I'm familiar with the process. Are you? How do you get your message out to that many people without money? How do you beat an established incumbent with a ton of relationships and a warchest? Knocking on doors doesn't do it at that level.
If you're feeling idealistic, get involved yourself next cycle. I usually do. Find a candidate you like and volunteer for them, you'll accomplish a little good and learn a lot about what campaigns do, make some connections in the process. It generally involves cold-calling households and knocking on doors.
It would probably physically kill me to run for office, actually, heh. I wish I could do it. I hate that I'm a complete hypocrite on this, but my actual goal is to make career politicians obsolete, and that's not something a single person can do anyways.
But to answer your questions, you don't. You lose the first round. The first round is about becoming a credible threat as a nobody. You spend that first round, however, building up relationships: it's about no longer being a political nobody. Then you maintain those relationships for the next few years until it's time to campaign again, and then you leverage them into money and votes.
Besides, I don't actually want people like me in office. I'm a philosopher who doesn't like Plato; why would I endorse a philosopher king.
Comparing strategic DOE loans in energy to Stalin and Mao is going a bit far, btw.