I agree with @UrLogicFails, local offices are incredibly important positions. A city council can affect so many facets of citizens’ lives, for better or worse, and a decisive vote for reducing insitutionalized harms is a huge thing to bring to the table. If you’ve got the bandwidth and inclination, go for it. Even the running for a position can be a platform to bring about social change, however small it seems.

It’s something that I’ve considered, but we’re recent enough residents in a state with an insular culture (Maine - I’ll tell you the “joke” I was told by a townie shortly after moving here if you want) and trying to bootstrap a business so it’s tough to place any resources towards it currently. It’ll certainly be revisited if circumstances make it an option, though.

Local office positions are incredibly important, and I think a lot of people overlook that importance.

Just this morning, I saw a post about how some Texas county was going to implement an abortion “travel ban” but Amarillo’s city council was not going to (https://beehaw.org/post/9016863).

They are both in Texas, they are both governed by the same state laws, but just having a different city council made a significant difference.

This is why every time there’s an election, I never skip the local election portion, it might make an even bigger difference in my day to day than my district representative (this is doubly so for school board positions if you have kids).

All this to say that if you have the mental bandwidth, energy, and time, to hold a local office position, you can absolutely make a huge difference.

It’s not meaningless at all. It is important to have people who genuinely care and are trying to do what’s best for the community to take part.

If you have the time and the motivation then absolutely go for it. Try to make your part of the world that little bit better

Don’t give in to the ambient cynicism. All levels of government matter and public service is meaningful and commendable. As for fixing things long term… nothing is fixed forever unfortunately, but that’s no reason not to strive for solidarity and sustainability.