My son texted me yesterday to tell me that he had voted and that it made him sick to his stomach. I suspect he was mostly referring to the dreadful Hobson’s choice that we all face at the top of the ballot. But as I look through my sample ballot, it is depressing how few candidates there are that I will be proud to vote for.

My and my son’s feelings are not unique. Back in July, before Biden dropped out, this Pew Foundation poll found that 68% of respondents were dissatisfied with the choice between Trump and Biden, and an astonishing 87% said that the campaign for president did not make them feel proud of the country. I doubt that Harris's entry into the race has changed how Americans feel about the race much.

For most Americans, I assume that it is the character of the candidates that is behind their disdain. While Harris has tried to distinguish herself on the character issue from Trump’s narcissism and legerdemain, polling indicates she has failed to close that deal. That is truly remarkable considering how low that bar is. My guess is that her olympic flip-flopping has undercut her ability to make that case.

A professor at Arizona Christian University recently released a poll that showed many who regularly attend worship services plan to sit out the election. Also, unlike 2016 and 2020, there has been active pushback by some evangelical groups against their faith leaders who are backing Trump. Most polling still shows that Trump leads evangelical voters by a wide margin, but the ACU survey may suggest they are less enthusiastic to vote this time for a leader whose character and rhetoric are so antithetical to many of their core beliefs.

How did we get to this sorry state of affairs? The answer is simple. We did not heed the warnings of our founders about the dangers of allowing two political parties to control our country. John Adams expressed the concern most succinctly:

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” -John Adams’ letter to Jonathan Jackson, 1780.

In his Farewell Address, George Washington issued even a starker warning:

In addition to Washington and Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and virtually every other founder condemned ceding too much power to political parties. They must all be rolling over in their graves today.

Perhaps it is time that we pay attention to our founders and take our country back from this morally and intellectually bankrupt duopoly that currently controls it. A good start would be to end their control over ballot access and the public funding of their primary elections. At least then we might have some other viable choices. I don’t know about you, but I would sure like to go in the voting booth and have something other than the lesser of two evils to vote for.