maybe people finally stopped expecting everyone to further put their lives on hold and invest their life savings running for an office or "joining their town council" or whatever...

Look, if you think you're going to make a difference being on the town council or running for some local office and you have the means to, go ahead. Just stop questioning the MAGA loyalty of others who don't You know it's going to take far more than getting on a school board or into a local office to change anything significantly. It's sooner or later going to come down to just taking it back - interpret that however you want - but picking up a few seats on a governing body won't do it and people can lose their life savings, and years of their lives just trying to get elected and probably failing to someone who can run on pocket change and is far more well known.