Should the next occupant of Washington’s White House be determined on the basis of personal likability or demonstrated policy leadership and implementation? Has the voting public noticed that some major ballyhooed initiatives of 2020 have yet to be implemented, like nationwide broadband access and electric-vehicle charging stations? How about the flood and dispersion of illegal and incredibly diverse humanity and opioids crossing our borders from nearly 200 other nations – and the related burden of spreading criminality and homelessness? These and shared cost-of-daily-living concerns should be existential forces conducive to political unity rather than ongoing public demoralization, disaffection and polarization. It’s about us as a fundamentally optimistic, forward-looking society that had earned global respect by consistent principled, humanistic performance of elected officials rather than imposed autocratic dictatorship. We cannot allow the threat of destruction by foreign adversaries to undermine popular will by discouraging voter participation – or by internal efforts to subvert election protocol and blatantly “buy“ ballot support from special interests. Phil Osifer