*It is either a woman or a man.
It is the distinction between someone with years of political experience and someone with years of business experience.
It is a choice between someone who is careful with their words when addressing the public and someone who throws caution to the wind when addressing the public.
It is someone who mishandled emails or the alternative of someone who objectifies women.
It is disparity between someone who wants the country to be inclusive and someone who wants the country to be exclusive.
It is the option of someone who at their core is a working class person and has done questionable things to elevate their station as well as ensuring that others can elevate themselves, and someone who at their core is a wealthy person who has done questionable things to maintain that wealth as well as ensuring that other wealthy people will be able to maintain that wealth.
It is the variation between someone who has kept their marriage together through public infidelity and someone who has undermined their marriage through public infidelity.
It is a pick between a person who has taken responsibility for their public missteps and someone who repeatedly deflected responsibility for their public missteps.
It is contrast between a person whose spouse once used a cigar in a lewd manner and someone whose spouse once earned a living by taking nude photographs (not that I believe their spouses are relevant).
It’s a selection of someone promoting progressive economic policies intended to benefit a majority of people or a selection of someone promoting free market economic policies intended to benefit a minority of people.
It is someone who tried to improve themselves after admitting past failures versus someone who has not acknowledged defeat.
It is settling for someone who erroneously supported the invasion of Iraq after September 11th, and someone who erroneously supported the invasion of Iraq after September 11th.
It is the difference between someone who embraces a former and reformed white supremacist years after that association and someone who uses language and images from current white supremacist websites.
It is the juxtaposition of someone who once referred to certain black people as super predators and someone who discriminated against certain black people.
It is between someone who has taken a lot of money from businesses and businessmen as a politician and someone who has given a lot of money to politicians as a businessman.
It is the possibility of someone leading a group of people who believe the important part of the phrase “queer citizen” is the word citizen, or someone leading a group of people who believe the queer part of the phrase “queer citizen” negates the citizen part.
No candidate is perfect but the choice is still obvious to me.
Trevor Brookins is a free lance writer in Rockland County, New York. He is currently working on a book about American culture during the Cold War. His writing has appeared in The Journal News. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @historictrev.