In my eyes, every election is a trainwreck. Two proudly irrational tribes rally behind two self-congratulatory demagogic mediocrities as if they wer

Whose Standards Are Too High? - by Bryan Caplan - Bet On It

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2024-11-12 15:00:08

In my eyes, every election is a trainwreck. Two proudly irrational tribes rally behind two self-congratulatory demagogic mediocrities as if they were the Second Coming. Listening to any “serious” candidate speak is torture. It’s like sitting in on the class presentations of C students, knowing that one of these C students will, on the basis of their half-baked words, become the most powerful person on Earth. What a disgraceful system.

You can tell me “One of these candidates must be the lesser evil” from dawn to dusk. But I just can’t stop thinking, “They all make my flesh crawl — and if you don’t feel the same way, there is something very wrong with you.”

Yet there is a simple and obvious reply to my extreme negativity: “Bryan, your standards are too high.” Critics could elaborate as follows:

The modern United States is one of the best times and places to live in all of human history, so the alleged “demagogues” who rule it can’t be that bad.