The least bad option.

As I waited for the polls to close on November the 4th, on both MSNBC and Fox News, talk was turning to the impact these elections would have on the 2016 race. I mean, why not extrapolate to to 2020? How will this affect Chelsea Clinton’s daughter’s run in 2064? More evidence, not that it was necessary, that American media has utterly abdicated its responsibility, and what we have instead of actual information is simply the 114th season of congressional idol. (Perhaps big brother? See who gets voted out of the house next? Perhaps not). I turned off the television, and I admit, tuned out for the next fortnight. The notion that elections matter beyond whether the blue or red team win is becoming increasingly divorced from coverage, and people’s lived experience. However, the executive actions announced by Obama this past week show that, even if it’s only at the margins, even if it’s piecemeal, even if it was cynically postponed to mitigate the damage at the midterms, elections do matter. As someone who considers himself of the left, Obama has, to my mind, been a predictably centrist disappointment, but it’s worth remembering he has probably been the least bad option on every ballot.