Politics & Power Quote by Birch Bayh

Bayh’s line does two things at once: it flatters youthful idealism while quietly indicting the system that exploits it. The opening - “like yourself” - is classic retail politics, a personal handshake in sentence form. But it’s also a strategic pivot. He starts with the hopeful premise that civic ambition still exists, then narrows the blame for its scarcity onto a single, concrete barrier: money. Not apathy. Not ignorance. Cost.

The key word is “burden.” Bayh isn’t describing fundraising as a distasteful chore; he frames it as a weight that warps democracy by filtering out candidates before voters ever get a choice. “Astronomically expensive” is not a policy term, it’s a moral diagnosis. It suggests something beyond normal market logic, a realm where numbers become absurd and therefore politically corrosive.

Context matters: Bayh was a mid-century reform-minded senator, associated with big institutional questions (constitutional amendments, campaign reform currents of the 1970s). By the time he’s making a remark like this, he’s speaking as a veteran watching the job change shape. The subtext is a warning: national office has drifted from public service toward permanent capital-raising, and that shift narrows who can realistically run - favoring the wealthy, the well-connected, or those willing to spend years dialing for dollars.

It’s also a subtle defense of young would-be candidates: if fewer are stepping up, the problem isn’t their character. It’s the price of entry.