Thank you for your thoughtful response, Joe, and I’m sorry if I was rude in my comments. But Lauren’s articles infuriate me, because she is so caught up in her self-righteousness that she fails, utterly, to see the writing on the wall: that if we do not turn out en masse to vote for Biden, Trump will have a clear path to the fascist dictatorship that has always been his wet dream. This election is an existential crisis for our country and planet!

So this is no time to be harping on the supposed corruption of the man who emerged from the primaries. This is no “tweedledum vs tweedledee” election — no “lesser of two evils” nonsense. It is rather a stark choice between a very conventional middle-of-the-road career politician, on one hand, and a vile, malignant monster on the other. If Biden is elected, we will, of course, have to fight tooth and nail to get the legislation and executive action we want — but at least we will have a chance of making significant progress, until progressive candidates and their ideas become more widely embraced by the mainstream. If Trump is elected (or steals the election), all bets are off: we will spiral into unimaginable chaos, civil conflict, and tyranny from which there is no possible recovery.