The presidential election of 2016 will be remembered as a contrast between bile versus bombast, between an anointed member of The Establishment and a demagogue of reality TV; between a candidate who would struggle to defeat an otherwise obscure socialist and now confronts a thrice-bankrupted casino operator with a record of failed marriages and forsaken creditors.

In this choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump we have attacks and counterattacks, as well as name-calling, lies, rumors and innuendo. We have everything but a genuine contest of ideas, leaving us – leaving America – no more ready to be great again than able to solve our most urgent problems.

Let it also be said that America is good, in perpetual pursuit of greatness. We continue to strive to form a more perfect Union, spending blood and treasure to secure those rights – for all Americans – that are as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution. That is a promise proclaimed by President Kennedy during a moral crisis of whether this country could endure half-slave or half-free. Those are words for us to remember because they are an expression of substance, compared to this year of incompetence and ineptitude.

This is the election of forgotten issues and neglected duties, in exchange for the diversion of Twitter and the partisanship of party hacks.

Where, may I ask, are the speeches about political reform and education policy? Where are the lengthy debates – impassioned but civil, intelligent yet free of invective – where Clinton and Trump discuss the future of the Middle East? Where are their remarks, noteworthy for their detail but nuanced by their transcendence of party loyalty, regarding the intricacies of trade, tariffs and taxes?

Thus, we have a good nation without the answers to questions of great importance. We face grave matters of war and peace without clarity about the strength of our alliances and the trust of our allies. We face yet another election full of sound and fury signifying nothing, while we descend into madness about laughter concerning Trump’s hair and conspiracy theories involving Clinton’s server.

As painful as these facts are, and as difficult as they are to read, I refuse to abandon the promise of America – that we get the leaders we deserve; and come the next election, with hindsight and wisdom, we will not nominate – and we will not accept – a ballot that gives us more of the same.

I look at the world as it is, and as it could be, for good or ill. For if we are to be the last best hope of earth, if we are to be the Land of Lincoln (and of Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt, too), then we need to appeal to the better angels of our nature.

We need candidates of courage and sacrifice. We need nominees of insight and legitimacy. We need a president of the people, who is ready to do the people’s business.

In that spirit of malice toward none, and charity for all, let 2016 be the end of “the lesser of two evil” candidates and mendacious campaigns.

 

Elizabeth Rice Grossman

23 September 2016