On choosing a "least worst" alternative

The political system in the US sucks! But, maybe less so than anywhere else? Four years ago I had to hold my nose to cast a vote in the presidential election. I did, for all the good it did us. Now, almost four years later the stock market is tanking, again; COVID-19 is ravishing populations, economies and health systems world-wide; and it looks like I'm going to have to hold my nose again this November.

Fortunately, some years ago the Better Half taught me that sometimes the best choice available is the least worst alternative. I hate that but I'm glad she either learned it or figured it out and taught me. It looks like it may be a useful, perhaps essential, skill in our continuing deterioration (hopefully not a death spiral) into a "New Normal."

So far, we've been lucky that our household's problems have been only of annoying and aggravating significance. Many others aren't so lucky. Here's a quotation from an email that landed in my Inbox a bit ago:

According to the Brookings Institute, 44 percent of all workers in the US (53 million) now qualify as “low wage.” These workers labor every day to sustain their families and build a better life, but they’re struggling against a system that prioritizes profits over the well-being of families and communities. This is not an accident — it’s the result of policies driven by special interests at the expense of working families, and it’s on us to demand changes.

Over the last few decades, our policymakers have failed working people as the American middle class has been hollowed out. The gap between millions on the bottom and a few at the top is now at unprecedented levels.

Isn't this the kind of economy, based on the types of policies, that turns US into a proverbial "shithole country," rather than making us great again? Once again we will belabor the point that COVID-19 provides us an opportunity and the necessity to acknowledge that we're all in this together. We can create a world in which each of us wins more easily and readily or we can continue one in which some win much too disproportionately. An economist named Kate Raworth has written a book that debunks (almost?) all of the economic myths on which our economies are currently operating. I'm about halfway through Doughnut Economics. Much of it is consistent with my preexisting biases, which no doubt helps explain why I'm enjoying reading it. One of those biases is a belief that only a damn fool burns down his house to stay warm. Another is the belief that "we all do better when we al do better."

So, since my preferred candidate has withdrawn, between now and the time of the Democratic convention, I'll be comparing the two nominees to see which I think is the least worst alternative (each, as far as I'm concerned, has a number of large, ugly warts). Then, assuming there's an election come next November, I'll have gone through a similar evaluation between the Democratic nominee and  the current occupant of the White House. We already have an unfortunately large number of examples of how badly the latter can screw up things. It'll have to be an educated guess about the alternative, based on statements and track records. Fortunately, focusing on selecting a least worst alternative, instead of trying to choose the best, should make choosing, and the rest of my life, considerably easier over the next six months or so. Naturally, all of this presumes the individual parties mentioned in this posting manage to stay upright and functional until election day.

An Old Story

Tracy K. Smith - 1972-

We were made to understand it would be
Terrible. Every small want, every niggling urge,
Every hate swollen to a kind of epic wind.
Livid, the land, and ravaged, like a rageful
Dream. The worst in us having taken over
And broken the rest utterly down.
                                                               A long age
Passed. When at last we knew how little
Would survive us—how little we had mended
Or built that was not now lost—something
Large and old awoke. And then our singing
Brought on a different manner of weather.
Then animals long believed gone crept down
From trees. We took new stock of one another.
We wept to be reminded of such color.

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