To the editor,

YouTube carries a video of a battle in the Everglades between two primitive, cold-blooded killers, an alligator and a Burmese python. After watching their existential struggle, one viewer was moved to observe that things have to be pretty bad when you find yourself rooting for an alligator.  

I have a similar reaction to the upcoming presidential election. Which of the two badly flawed candidates likely to be endorsed by the major political parties should get my vote? Granted, a comparison to reptiles is a bit harsh and a bit unfair. But towering moral character isn’t an attribute of either man, to say the least. They are both inveterate liars, tireless self-promoters, cultivators of resentment and division, and motivated almost exclusively by self-interest. Their failings as human beings are too numerous to catalog in a letter to the editor, but anyone who is paying attention knows this is true. In fact, their supporters seem to acknowledge as much. When pressed, they don’t try to defend their champion; their only argument is that the other guy is even worse.

I am not alone in wanting better choices. Polling data indicates that a substantial majority of voters do not want to see a rematch of the 2020 presidential election. Yet both major political parties seem determined to foist this unappealing pair on us, confident that we really don’t have another choice. So let’s make this the year we push back, the year we use our votes to express our profound disapproval. First, this can happen in the party caucuses and primaries. Perhaps sanity within the major parties will yet prevail. But if not, let’s consider a third-party or write-in candidate. I am not naïve enough to believe that either approach is likely to produce a winner. But we have to start somewhere, even if it takes several election cycles before any good fruit is borne. The status quo is not serving us well. We need to raise the bar appreciably. We should expect more honor from our candidates than these two offer and more concern for honor from the political parties that nominate them. In fact, we should insist on it.   

Ed Mertz 

Prescott