Lawrence R. Jacobs: Whatever happened to starting small?

Mike Ciresi's withdrawal from the battle to represent the DFL in the U.S. Senate contest against incumbent Norm Coleman offers a cautionary tale about American politics. Ciresi sports a sterling résumé as an attorney, and he has a bank account that reflects his courtroom successes. The autopsy of his campaign shows that it died from a common killer -- lack of support within the party. No shame there.

And, yet, the Ciresi campaign distills a surprisingly common itch to jump into politics with little or no hands-on experience. "Gee, I think I'll give the U.S. Senate a try and run for office."

I know. What's wrong with new blood? Surely, we need "change" -- today's poll-tested power word.

All that is true, but running for elected office and effectively using the legislature is a calling, not a hobby. Achieving social change requires steady perseverance, exquisite skills in building networks that bring people together, and bone-numbing, full-time work.

I take my hat off to Ciresi for giving a U.S. Senate race a go. Still, it is striking that he was running for one of the most-important national offices in our country without ever holding an elective office at any level of government.

He seemed oddly detached from the enterprise. He held his day job until late last year and at times appeared uncomfortable in social settings that called for that ancient talent of "working a room."

I am not pleading for insider politics. What concerns me is the tendency in the Democratic and Republican parties to recruit candidates of wealth who come into the political process as rookies. In an era when presidential campaigns cost more than the gross national product of some countries, wealthy candidates can self-finance. When Ciresi's fundraising flagged, he dropped a cool $2 million into the gas tank.

What happened to starting off by serving in state or local office or working as a community organizer?

The health and effectiveness of representative democracy depends on giving voice to the diverse and often competing values and interests in our communities. We rely on remarkable citizens to "live for politics" by devoting themselves to the adept practice of representation.

The legendary German sociologist Max Weber explained that the "vocation of politics" requires an aptitude to engage in the "strong and slow boring of hard boards." Successful apprenticeships in politics can instill a healthy skepticism about searching out quick fixes and simulating representation in place of genuine community engagement.

The hard work of fashioning government policy in a process designed to invite conflict among divergent perspectives requires the skills of a specialized craft -- the ability to search out compromises that achieve mutual gains, the patience to pursue gradual but meaningful progress, and sustained and strong bonds with constituents.

The neophyte candidacy imperfectly echoes Hillary Clinton's challenge of Barack Obama's "experience" in the tussle for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. True, the commander in chief's power raises unique issues, and Clinton's decisionmaking roles as First Lady and two-term U.S. senator put her close to its exercise (though she did not have her finger on the "button"). In fairness, the criticisms of Obama are a campaign strategy to belittle him as a novice, obscuring his experiences as a campaign organizer, as a seven-year state legislator and as a three-year U.S. senator.

Without altogether dismissing the Clinton-Obama debate over "experience," the emergence of political amateurs is a different or at least a more extreme case. Beginners are running and winning positions as chief executives and as members of Congress without significant experience in an era when our communities demand genuine change and when historic levels of polarization stymie the hard work of reaching sensible decisions.

"Compromise" has become a bad word today for some ardent advocates on the left and the right. The truth is that our representative system requires it. We need citizen legislators who work in our communities and learn the hard skills of politics. Making decisions that deal with the realities on the ground and re-engaging our neighbors in public life depend on it.

Lawrence R. Jacobs is director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.