Moderation, tolerance and openness are not signs of weakness nor indecision. I’ve pointed this out before. It is easy to succumb to simplistic ideological certainties, whereas it is difficult to navigate the middle ground where political and social solutions are to be found. Moderation walks the tightrope. Extremism falls off left and right.

We are now faced with a choice between two truly unappealing presidential candidates. One is a supreme narcissist, a loose canon, a solipsist, a pathological liar totally inexperienced in government. He seems not to understand that government is not a business and that our president is not a CEO. He is unable to work with others, can’t fire Congress, and would be a disaster.

The other candidate drags behind her a decades-long chain of questionable behavior, opportunism, cronyism, ties to big money, deviousness, phoneyness and general arrogance — a poster girl for “entrenched, self-satisfied career politician.” The one positive thing here may be that Bernie Sanders has forced her to change, to consider financial inequality, the middle and working classes, and what is happening to our nation as people sink further into poverty.

Imagining one of these two as president is disheartening, but the guy is the more dangerous to us and the world. With him some terrible things could come about, whereas with her it’s just that not much that’s positive is likely to happen.

You must vote. Many people died for you. Take the better of those two lousy choices, and that choice seems clear to me.

Abbott Meader

Oakland

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