It didn’t quite make my ‘links’ recommendation in my monthly newsletters but I really enjoyed this podcast Tim Ferriss did with Cory Booker. Booker is, in addition to just being an interesting guy, currently representing New Jersey in the US Senate and is getting a lot of mentions as a possible 2020 Presidential candidate.
At one point in the episode, Booker comments that someone who can piss off both sides of the political aisle is probably doing something right. This reminded me of the joking way I sometimes criticize the left-right model of politics. The problem I have is how the continuum implied by the setup leaves a flat ‘middle ground’ – unfortunately, not all of us who sit in the middle are created equal and this model doesn’t account for those subtle differences in the center.
I think a better representation would be a diamond shape. This leaves the left and right as is while creating two possibilities in the middle. The first possibility (top or bottom, doesn't matter to me) is the centrist who can work both sides. The second is the opposite – the person in the middle who alternates pissing off the left and right. Based on my experiences over the past decade – being mocked as a crazy liberal by Republicans while also being asked with incredulity by Democrats if I’m a Trump supporter – I have to conclude I’m the latter kind of centrist. Although I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing right, I’m glad to at least have Cory Booker’s support.
I guess while I’m rambling on about politics I might as well repeat my joke about my political views (I think I originally wrote this in a ‘Tales of Two Cities’ post). My political views are a lot like my city cycling philosophy – in theory, I’d like to spend more time on the right than I do now, but in practice the reality of the world forces me to the left.
