I have been a friend of Portland Mayor Michael Brennan for many years, and also a close observer of Portland’s politics. As such, I am compelled to respond to the Press Herald’s endorsement of Ethan Strimling.

The essence of the editorial board’s argument is that Strimling will be a better listener and, thus, will be able to overcome many of the divisions that exist in Portland.

There are two glaring problems with this argument.

First, the premise doesn’t hold water. Mayor Brennan has formed winning coalitions on the City Council on 100 percent of his priorities. He has built far-reaching collaborative efforts with business leaders, other mayors and legislators – to name just a few groups.

Second, the notion of “consensus” on our difficult problems is a false promise. It’s seductive to think of a city without divisions and united behind a shared purpose. The problem is that this notion ignores the type of system and society we actually live in. The genius of America is not that we are united in a shared vision for society – rather, it’s that we are able to make peaceful progress in a society where people hold wildly disparate views.

Portland is a vibrant city because of the passion that so many different people bring to public life. The job of the mayor is not to anesthetize that public spirit with an injection of utopian promises. The job of the mayor is to embrace people’s passions and chart a course that balances the strongly held views of so many different people.

That’s the job Mayor Brennan has done, and it’s the one he is best suited for in the next four years.