If someone, a year and half ago, had written a novel about this year’s presidential election, it would have been considered totally unbelievable. Hillary Clinton investigated for mishandling classified emails and Donald Trump bragging about his genitalia.

Crooked Clinton versus Crazy Trump. Yet we have to make a choice. Third-party candidates in our system simply do not have a chance.

Clinton is a corporate, corrupt and throughly slippery politician. She will say whatever she thinks will get her elected. Trump is a crazy-like-a-fox con man preying on the ignorant masses’ darkest fears, ginning up fear of crime, which is actually down, and terrorism, which will continue regardless of who is elected. He also specializes in demonizing Muslims, blacks and Mexicans.

There is really no choice between corruption on one side and both corruption (Trump University, etc.) and insanity on the other. Clinton is no saint, but she is both competent and sane. Trump is a bigot, a strongman and an enemy of basic civil liberties and free discourse. I will vote and work for Hillary Clinton, choosing the preservation of democracy over plutocracy and neofascism.

It is “sad,” to quote Trump, that we have him and Clinton as our choices, but we still have to choose to preserve America as a free and great country, which means stopping Trump.

John Riley

Falmouth