Swallow hard and support Clinton

I’m a strong Bernie Sanders supporter. As a Redding resident living overseas in China, I started Beijing for Bernie more than a year ago when, at just 2 percent in the polls, his candidacy was only idealistic wishful thinking. I knocked on doors for him in New Hampshire because I believed he was the best hope for real change in the country.

But he lost. And I have to get over it.

We must swallow our pride and stop Donald Trump from becoming president. My Trump-supporting friends say the system is too corrupt. On this, we agree. But Trump is not the solution. By all indications, he is an ignorant, racist sociopath. He lacks the dignity, maturity and common sense to be the leader of the free world. As numerous Republican leaders have said, our country, and indeed the world, would be in peril with Trump’s unhinged finger on the button.

I would not hire Trump to be my apprentice. I certainly won’t vote for him for president of the United States of America.

I’ve been a registered independent almost all of my life. I like the Greens. There’s a lot to like about the Libertarians. I’ve voted for them and other independents and third parties more often than I’ve voted Democrat. I never voted for Bill Clinton because he represents too much of what is wrong with our political system. His saying whatever it takes to get votes—that calculated pandering, the huge donors buying elections—is disgusting. And it’s not democratic.

Don’t let anyone tell you voting for a third party is a wasted vote. Malarkey. True, they won’t win. (Yet.) But when they have strong showings, they drive agendas. The Greens and Libertarians tug at my heart this year. But Hillary Clinton is just plain smarter and more experienced than either Jill Stein or Gary Johnson. Her moderate balance of idealism and pragmatism is better than theirs. She’d do a better job.

At the end of the day, Hillary is our best choice. (Swallowing hard.) I’m with her.