New Year's Eve Reflection and Wrap-Up of this Blog's First Six Months
At the time that this post comes out (8pm EST on 12/31/2020), some of you may already be in the new year, 1 hour of 2020 remains in the Eastern United States and Canada, and only 4 hours where I am currently situated (Fresno, CA). I can't believe that almost half of a year has passed ever since I started this blog, and want to take today's post to briefly reflect on the first 6 months, highlight some of this blog's posts from this past year, and inform you all of two major changes to this blog coming after the New Year.
In early May of 2020, as my graduate education was coming to an end, I was out for a walk around the (closed) UMD campus, and had a sudden idea of something I could start upon finishing graduate school so that I could continue my passion for writing about politics and public policy. That epiphany became this blog, which I started two weeks into my post-educational life, continues to this moment, and will continue for the foreseeable future. In a dynamic, uncertain, and unprecedented year, this blog is something I am very proud of, as it has not only continued to solidify my interest in talking about politics and public policy, but has also allowed me to contribute to the larger community of people interested in the same topics. Finally, the content published here adds to the cornucopia of knowledge and information about politics and public policy topics, and thus helps all of us better understand American public policy and politics.
A Look Back: Some of 2020's Highlights:
- Introduction (6/10/2020): This is where it all started.
- The 2020 House Primaries: Current Situation and Possible Futures (6/21/2020): The first post containing content made specifically for this blog, and one that would have multiple follow-up posts.
- Examining 116th House Member-District Age Gaps (6/28/2020): While I was not able to do multi-OLS regression, this piece was my first work using statistical regression in a while.
- Was 2016 a Hillary Decline or Trump Surge? Examining Voting Trends (7/8/2020): The idea for this post came from seeing a meme derived from a movie I grew up with, and still love to this day.
- Comparing the CARES Act with the HEROES and HEALS Acts (8/5/2020): I find this blog piece to be unique because of the simple comparison chart I made contrasting the previously-enacted and proposed legislation.
- The Counting of CA-7 and CA-16 2014's Votes: Two Foreboding Examples of the "Blue Shift" Effect? (8/27/2020): The first time I discussed my personal experiences as part of a blog post, something I normally don't do here.
- The San Joaquin Valley Electoral Politics Project, Part 1: 2010-2018 Gubernatorial Results (8/30/2020): The starting point for a project within this blog that has five parts as of now, and potential for more.
- 145 Hours to Federal Fiscal Year 2021: Historical Shutdowns and the Current Legislative Situation (9/24/2020): My first dive into fiscal policy, and one of the few posts that I came up with based on recent current events.
- Common Policy-Related Themes between The Other Wes Moore and Hillbilly Elegy (10/11/2020): This post was fun to make, as I stitched together a literature review on common themes from two books written by two authors who grew up around the same time and faced similar but disparate life journeys.
- Democratic House Freshmen (and one longtime member) with Competitive Re-Election Bids to Watch (11/1/2020): As the last election-related post before Election Day, I covered several House Democrats facing difficult re-election bids, and never thought 5 of the 6 (and possibly the 6th, depending on what happens in NY-22) would lose on Election Day.
- The 2020 Federal Elections: What Happened? (11/8/2020): The first in a series of post-2020 election content that summarized the overall trends that happened on Election Day.
- Senators Remaining in 2021 from the 2009 ACA vote (11/22/2020): This is another blog post that was fun to create because tabulating where 2009's Senators are now (still in Congress or not) come 2021 revealed huge insight into how much the Senate has changed in just 11 years.
- Notable Longtime County Voting Streaks that Ended in 2020 (12/10/2020): Like the two post-election bellwether assessments, this post had been on the production line since Election Day. However, unlike the others, I had to await full election results from all states to finally compile and publish it.
- 20 from 2020: America's Weirdest Write-in Votes (12/21/2020): In the least formal and serious post I have made so far, I examined 20 of the weirdest write-in votes from across America and added some personal comments to each.
- 9 Days to Georgia (Senate Runoffs): The Current Situation and Where to Watch on Runoff Night (12/27/2020): The last regular post the year covers (arguably) the two most critical elections of the year, the dual Georgia Senate runoffs, which could tilt Senate control to either of the two parties.
The fifteen posts listed above represent a fraction of all the content I produced this year, yet they reveal how this blog was launched, how it has evolved, and the overall format, direction, and style I have given it over time.
2020 Wrap-Up:
Something I want to remind everyone about is that I am open to, and appreciate any constructive criticism about this blog. If you would like to give advice or constructive criticism, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of any of the posts, or if you want to remain publicly-anonymous, send an email via the Contact Form at the bottom of every blog post. Furthermore, even if you don't have advice or constructive criticism, but want to further discuss or talk about content presented on my blog, feel free to start a comment chain on a post as well! I recently tested both features, and can confirm to you that they both work! You can also comment on my public Twitter feed, this blog's Facebook page, or my LinkedIn profile, where I communicate every blog article publicly, and post other policy- and politics-related content (e.g. maps and news articles).
Sometime in early 2021, one major change will be taking place on this blog. After doing research and thinking very deeply into this topic, I will be signing up this blog for Google's AdSense program to help support my personal expenses (i.e. monetization). At the moment, this blog is not monetized, but once I am on the program, I will be open to you all about this change.
With this decision in mind, there are several things I want to make clear. First, you will still be able to read my blog without (directly) paying a subscription fee or similar. Second, I will continue to create content regardless of how much money I receive from this blog, as passion is what drives me to produce content here. Once I set up monetization, I will re-post this information on a separate post addressing it, but I want to inform you all about this upcoming change now.
Finally, there will not be a regular post this coming Sunday, January 3rd, 2021, or next Thursday, January 7, 2021, so that I can catch up on stuff in my personal life (i.e. my ongoing job search) and prepare future content for this blog. The blog will resume with its first regular 2021 post on Sunday, January 10th, 2021. See you all then, and have a Happy New Year!
Original photo licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License. No changes were made to the image.
