The question wasn't "why aren't more people like us in public office". That is a legitimate question, but it becomes irrelevant if it's true that such people don't even stand.
I used to think that "politicians" were some special type of people with arcane social powers the geek knoweth not. More and more, I'm starting to think they're just the people who turn up for things. Ms. Edwards, to her enormous credit, turned up for something and got elected. Why don't more of us do that?
Has no one else mentioned this on LW yet?
Elizabeth Edwards has been elected as a New Hampshire State Rep, self-identifies as a Rationalist and explicitly mentions Less Wrong in her first post-election blog post.
Sorry if this is a repost