Realities of small town politics.

An specific aspect of All The Kings Men I found very interesting where the harsh realities of small town politics, especially in the south. In these small towns a lot of nepotism and corruption are nasty truths that tend to make themselves self evident and usually end up causing more damage to the people they where intended to protect. These realities where specifically brought  to light during the school house incident where Willie wanted to hire a black crew instead of a more expensive predominantly white crew. But pressure prevailed and the town ended up hiring the white crew whose shotty work led to a terrible accident, "Well some of the brickwork gave and the bricks and bars holding the contraption to the wall pulled loose and the whole thing fell away, spraying kids in all directions"(92). This is just a small example of how the greater good of the people is put on the back burner and nepotism and greed is allowed to rule the playing field in small town politics. Another example of how small town politics tend to rule these interconnected communities is how opinions can be taken personally and result in unfair treatment. In the same schoolhouse situation Lucy Talos, the wife of Willie was fired from her job as a local school teacher because of her standing on the controversial situation, "I didn't want to teach in a school house they built just so somebody can steal some money"(84). This is an interesting perspective on how peoples opinions certainly have an effect on their employment, or lack there of. In a larger city or even a bigger town her opinion would most likely be disregarded and forgotten about but due to her small town situations her opinions are not only heard loud and clear but taken very personally by the people that they encompass.