This is an awesome post. I’m a left leaning independent and I’ve always respected and admired your grandfather. I don’t always agree with him, but he has always treated people with dignity. Folks have been circulating the clips of him shutting down voters who spouted conspiracy theories about Obama and his heartfelt congratulations to Obama on the historic nomination. That’s how a presidential nominee (and decent person) should behave. I was planning to vote for him 2008, because he’s a good man and had a heck of a lot more experience in DC than Obama did, but I couldn’t, in good conscious, let Palin that close to the presidency. (I’m both amazed and horrified that the GOP managed to nominate someone who makes Palin look like Margret Thatcher.) So, like you, I’m voting for Hillary because conscious dictates it, even if she’s not exactly my first choice. (Johnson and Weld seem like good guys as well, certainly wouldn’t fault anyone for going that route, especially if they aren’t in a swing state.)

I also really appreciate your rhetoric on demonization. Clinton’s got plenty of flaws and has made mistakes (don’t think she’d argue otherwise), but she’s faced really ugly opposition from the right wing media for 20 years now. I realized this summer that I’ve spent over half my life listening to conspiracy theories about her. When those in the conservative media bubble ask why people don’t care about the most recent scandal du jour, they don’t seem to realize it’s their own fault given the nonsense they’ve peddled in the past. I was only a teenager when her husband was president, but I remember how blatantly sexist a lot of the attacks were on her back then. They also like to characterize Clinton as some crazy marxist leftist (what?) when she’s really just a left of center establishment democrat (she’s actually more of a neocon when it comes to foreign policy ffs!)

Our two party system is pretty terrible. I think the majority of Americans would prefer party that was right of center on the economy (reduced spending, smarter spending and making government more efficient, not trickle-down economics and eliminating all social safety nets) and left of center on social issues (pro-gay rights, legal abortion, not using rhetoric that’s blatantly racist, sexist and homophobic- most republicans don’t do these things, but unfortunately, many of the loudest voices do). Right now neither party is serving those interests (even before Trump). I’ve been kind of hoping for the GOP to implode, because it looked like it was heading that way and it means they have the opportunity for real change. Dems need to change too, but there has been a lot less in-fighting there, so my hope has been that change in the GOP will force change on the left as well. Some of what I’ve seen gives me hope, but the fact that good, moderate republicans like your grandfather and my senator, Mark Kirk, are in danger of losing their seats in November makes me a bit less optimistic.