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Except they already pick their candidates from their own stock of controlled people. You have to infiltrate their networks and play their game to get their money.

I kinda like Massie and he's more of an ideologue, so he may have gotten into it because of his beliefs. But this is true for 99% of politicians, and could be true of him as well. If the money they offer you and the money they use to find your opposition if you refuse aren't enough, there's always the bullet to the head that most people would prefer to avoid.

This should be taken into account more. The smart money right now is the Empire has a lot of inertia, but it's on its way down in every way. It would be totally reasonable for powerful people to be planning ahead of the collapse, just like you might hoard food and ammo. Most of them still act untouchable because for now they are, and hubris is powerful.

The United States' structure doesn't make any sense any more. After the Civil War, they already had to force people back into it. People have been trying to get out of it for a while now. The primary divisions are no longer between the states but within them. There is no mechanism of Congress for solving those conflicts. The government was supposed to manage an unruly collection of essentially-independent fiefdoms. We never signed up for a large central government that regulates every problem between Tom, Dick and Harry with an individual for-the-children law.