Whatever your views on any particular policy or the personality of either candidate, it’s worth observing that one party’s convention portrayed America as a crisis-laden hellscape that can only be salvaged by the lone, personal action of a billionaire savior, the details of which he’ll tell you later. The other party’s convention portrayed America as strong and exceptional and a place where anything is possible for anyone because, even if we don’t have the answers to every question, we will certainly succeed by virtue of our shared values as Americans.

I will never be starry-eyed for any politician and I’m under no illusions that Hillary Clinton ever has been or ever will be on the side of righteousness on every single matter. She, like anyone who has risen to her level of power, is flawed and compromised in some pretty important ways. 

But, setting your persona views of her aside, ask yourself which vision of America, in past elections, you preferred. Ask yourself which vision is more appealing to you and speaks to our better nature. Ask yourself which world you’d rather live in, whether the promise of each respective vision is fulfilled or if, as often happens, we fall short of achieving it.

​Personally, I’d rather aim high, for the light, hoping that we can succeed collectively and risk falling short than wallow in darkness in the hopes that some self-proclaimed superman rescues us from all that he tells us we should fear.