You're not ... wrong, but I can't shake your use of the term "hobby farm voters" which is the worst kind of no-true-Scotsman aspersion, it really brings the rest of your argument down. And what is the problem with putting minorities to work on the face, that it's a kind of virtue-signaling?
It seems like that there's no inherit value in these things by your argument.
And yet, yes, there is an issue with large infrastructure projects being turned into jobs programs so the scope creeps and they never get done-- A problem not unique to transportation infrastructure, but government-funded projects in general, as the incentives for project managers in govt and politicians are aligned to continuously increase scope
I couldn't find a better term for those who live close enough to a big city to actually make use of it, while far enough out to look like farmers. There are some real farmers in this group as well.
So write the bill to require Halliburton to build the rail and hire minorities to do so. Everyone gets to skim and everyone is happy and eventually you might even get something that kind of works.
/sarcastic, but not entirely
> democratic voters that want high speed rail, but lose interest when experts say that there need to be lots of intermediate stops
A few do. Based on the people they elect most don't actually care about high speed rail. They care about workers - the more the better, and even better yet if you can make those workers minorities. High speed rail is only a proxy for spending lots of money on something that gets people working, if the rail is never finished that is so much the better because they can keep paying those people to build the line.
Rural voters won't benefit much. By the time they drive to a big city where they can catch the train they may as well fly. The amount of distance needed to get to the train station means that there isn't very much in range by rail that they are not better off driving.
Note, there is rural voters and hobby farm voters. The hobby farm voters live and work in a big city, and go home to their small farm with a little bit of livestock to farm for fun. They might make money on the farm, but it isn't their day job. The only difference from suburban voters is they are just a little bit farther out. There are a lot of these voters who don't see how HSR will help them, even though it will once they realize how much faster it is to get to other cities.