I'd love to do political consulting... I'm not a great technologist. I'm not a cryptographer, my linux skills are stuck in the 2000s... I'm basically a mid 30s scrip kiddie who did a lot of poetry on the side. I never had the nest egg that enables others to speak like I do in the clear, in the real. I wanted to be a writer, I didn't want to be a lawyer, and I didn't want to waste my parents' money, so I studied "information", the ultimate creative nonfiction.

I used to just encourage slow change -- get people to register to vote, not tell them how to, and hope that with each iteration, we'll get closer to how it was when America was formed -- more of a right libertarian versus democratic socialist debate, if we're going to force a two party system. After all, folks seem to forget that George Washington, like myself, was an independent -- I only registered as a democrat out of grave concern for our democracy, after being told by one of the local election judges it is how it is -- you need to declare a bias, or you're suspect...

I'm very good at telling people what to say and do to get into office. I'm less good at keeping them there, but... I also, like the Italian Five Stars, believe that politics should not be a profession.

And unlike the not-so-crypto-anarchists, I do think government can be a good thing, if done from the bottom up -- my experience has been that most politicians, and I've met scores of them in the informal context, having met scores of them... they're like that bald guy who gets gassed by Kevin Spacey on house of cards[1]. Or Frank Sabotka on The Wire[2]. Starting out with good intent, perverted by evil men (and women) who do not want to listen to the voice of the people, who think we have an "excess" of democracy[3].

Based on the above... where, if anywhere, should I apply? Who should I talk to?

I was immature, in 2016. I was too focused on childish things, like being a penetration tester, a job I'm not suited for... 80/100% out of state or country travel, juggling clients, and... I wasn't even making much -- I got roped into yet another nonprofit, one offer at a time, so I didn't have the nest egg to land gracefully.

Anyway -- I'm good at this. Picking people, putting them in, knocking them out (metaphorically).

How do I do it... for money?

Has anyone done this pivot, and if so, are you willing to drop your contact information in the comments?

My email is this username at proton m a i l dot c h if you want to reach out to me rather than go that way.

I'm off to return some library books.

(Apparently that's become the new "I'm off to return some video tapes"[4]) == SPOILERS IN CITATIONS 1, 2, and 4: [1] Peter Russo... was a Democratic Congressman from PA's 1st Congressional District. Divorced with two children... when Frank saw that Peter was becoming a liability, he killed him and made his death look like a suicide. [2] Frank is a respected Polish-American treasurer for the International Brotherhood of Stevedores at the Baltimore docks. As the pater familias for the docks' longshoremen population, it is his job to manage the finances of the labor union and make sure that workers are taken care of - a task made harder by the decline of the local shipping industry and lack of available hours... Suspicious of how a longshoreman could have so much disposable income, Valchek manages to persuade Deputy Commissioner Ervin Burrell to assemble a detail to investigate Sobotka's activities. [3] https://web.archive.org/web/20120309011043/http://www.trilateral.org/download/doc/crisis_of_democracy.pdf [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8coOHhotXY