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Mine’s Bigger
Median Distance to an Early Voting Site in Albany County
This map doesn't use any shapefiles per se, it is created entirely in code by using arcpullr and tigris for the geospatial data. https://github.com/AndyArthur/r_maps_and_graphs/blob/main/Distance%20to%20Albany%20County%20Early%20Vote%20Site.R
The Older I Get the More Disdain for Politics Grow …
When I was a younger individual I used to enjoy politics and politicians. While I still enjoy the analysis side of things and the personalities, and sometimes the creative ways that politicians find to get around problems they face, I have a growing disdain for politics. I hate the cult nature that has grown around leading politicians like Trump and Biden, how people feel they have to take certain actions in support of their preferred leaders. Or how politics often becomes a way that individuals hide from their own personal failings.
Nowadays I tend to see politics are more of a freak show, something entertaining but without much of a consequence to myself or something that I have much of a stake one way or another in. Yes, it provides me a living, something to grab some of fat off it’s hide to sustain me, but not something that I consider deeply personal or important like much more ideological people do these days. If anything when people talk about how awful the other side is, I just sit there quietly, moaning to myself, realizing how ignorant people can be to the awfulness of their own party.
I’ve always been an independent when it comes to politics. I don’t really like either party, or how they bring out the worse of American society. But also I realize when politicians play their public relations game up front, the thing to watch is in details and how things are being made worse or better behind the scenes. Usually it’s the little stuff that politicians never talk about that make the biggest difference in life. Things rarely noticed outside of industries they are most apply to.
I don’t play victim to politics. Instead I focus on my own life, realizing what the politicians do it outside of my control. I can vote or even campaign or show up at public hearings and scream, but it’s like buying a lottery ticket. Chances are good it won’t make a difference, what is bound to happen will happen. It’s not to say that sometimes one won’t get lucky and make a difference but it’s rare. But choices in my own life are things that I can truly control, and have much more power over rather then that of the politicians.
Politics is more about patronage than ideology
If you turn on the news today, you could be mislead in thinking that politics is mostly about a great ideological fight for the direction of the country. But as I’m reading Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, I’m reminded what government is ultimately about – patronage.
Political parties are groups of people who serve each other’s interests by living off the largesse of taxpayers. People in political parties often don’t agree with each other but they serve each other as they know serving their common goals move themselves and their communities forward.
Often patronage is considered a bad word or a waste of government resources. But it’s how work gets done, it is how coalitions of support are built. Ideology is nice and it might feel good like stroking certain body parts. Yet, nothing was ever built on a common belief. But making sure all supporters are rewarded makes it possible to build great things both for society and the individuals who make up society.
Not a conservative or a Trump supporter
I never liked Trump as I didn’t think he was a serious candidate for president or even a serious president. He’s not somebody I think is willing to listen to facts or even understand complicated nuisanced issues. Most politicians like to toot their horns and be obnoxious ideologues by throwing red meat to their base, but I never got the impression that Trump goes any deeper than that.
I never got rallying around the flag or the support our police and military movement. Government workers have jobs and we expect them to do it competently for pay. It’s what I do too. But I don’t expect any parades in my honor. Government workers get paid, and many have unions and if they are concerned about low pay or unsafe working conditions – the solution shouldn’t be parades or medals given out – but better pay, benefits and working conditions. Government workers aren’t virtuous but they deserve fair working conditions.
Indeed, I’m deeply cynical about the government. I don’t think the government is out there to help but instead is motivated by a complex web of personal ambitions. Every government program after all is motivated by a desire of politicians to get reelected or a government employee to get a promotion and make more money. So if anything I’m a libertarian – regulate the corporations and big businesses but leave the little guy alone.