On politics + some links

I read Grant Ginder’s Let’s Not Do That Again¹ a year ago² and copied these two quotes from it into a draft. Somewhere along the line, Ginder did his homework on what politics is really like on every level.³

“What do people imagine when they decide to work in politics? Long, stately halls lined with statues? The sound of heels clicking on a polished marble floor? History changed beneath a Corinthian colonnade? Cate can’t remember. What she knows now is that decisions — important ones — are often made in places not befitting them. Treaties may be signed in Versailles, but they’re written on the hoods of cars by overcaffeinated lawyers. Breakfast is someone else’s beef Stroganoff and lunch is yesterday’s sandwich. Politics is a scavenger hunt. Between decisions and their consequences, you’re scrambling for a pen that works and something that is safe to eat.”

… and…

“A litany of buzzwords follows: prosperity and freedom and hard work. Making lives better for all Americans. It’s the same vocabulary Nancy uses, though when she says those words she means something different. For as long as she’s been in this game, the fact never fails to surprise her — how at its heart politics is actually just a very expensive matter of semantics.”

That last sentence? Could not be more true.

And if you’ve made it this far, two links:

• I’m looking forward to Ultra Something, which is about ultra running but not really about ultra running.

• Jewelry isn’t really a thing I pay much attention to but I dearly love Dearest, which is a newsletter about jewelry auctions but not really about jewelry auctions.⁴
  

1. I would not say that it’s a good book—the last quarter is very much a let’s-throw-everything-at-the-wall—but it is a very entertaining book with more than a few moments where I literally LOLd. And I’m not a LOLer.

2. at least. Could have been longer. Time has no meaning.

3. It’s this and Veep and Parks and Rec. It is not West Wing. THIS HAS BEEN A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.

4. (and I very much want that game in the last graf.)