If you’re still undecided in the race for president, envision the world in which you want to live | Editorial

Still undecided?

Is it that our nation’s two-party system — Republicans and Democrats controlling the machinery, which produced the winner of every United States presidential election since 1852 — is tired, uninspired, and unwilling to “pass the torch to a new generation?”

Is it that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the best the Democratic and Republican parties have to offer Americans who are fighting a pandemic, a tanking economy and an unprecedented parade of natural disasters.

Nevertheless, we must choose, if we want to recover and thrive.

Come January, someone is going to be in charge of leading America into a new decade and, we hope, out of the pandemic, out of the tanking economy and out of the “invading sea,” in which South Florida might, literally, drown. This man will hold power over the daily lives of everyone who is reading this editorial, and everybody who matters to everyone who is reading it.

What are your issues?

Since the founding of our republic, there have been 11 documented cases of elections being decided by one vote. So if you’re in the military, it’s worth your time to consider what you want in a commander-in-chief.

If you hunt, swim, fish or take your kids to the beach, it’s worth your time to consider what you want in the man in charge of keeping our water clean and our air safe to breathe.

If you work for a living, it’s worth your time to consider what you want in the man in charge of working conditions in virtually every workplace.

If you’ve ever worried about how to pay tuition or medical bills, it’s worth your time to consider what you want in the man who sets national standards for education and healthcare.

It’s been a half century since historian Arthur Schlesinger warned us of the dangers of an “imperial presidency.” Since then, the power of presidents over the daily lives of Americans has grown exponentially, but it has not — yet — robbed us of our right to express our opinion as to which of these two extremely imperfect political parties has done the better job at articulating what we want to happen in the next four years.

First World privilege

This Editorial Board has generations of experience making decisions in the countless local, state, and national elections where the choices were uninspiring, or worse. In our line of work, “undecided” is not an option. “Undecided” is a First World privilege, a luxury entirely beyond the reach of those who live in one of the planet’s 50 dictatorships, where the one in charge cannot be invited to stay or be turned away every four years.

Undecided voters still have just a little bit of time to talk to colleagues, family, friends and neighbors about what they think. Use that time to let those you respect speak without interruption.

We’ve tested this process over decades. It works. It strengthens the bonds of family, friendship and community, and it gets us to the polls, even when we have to hold our noses as we bubble in our ballots.