Among the duties of citizenship is sometimes having to vote for “the lesser of two evils,” as Lea Falkenhagen wrote. Third-party candidates are often doppelgangers for what’s wrong with the two-party system. So, seeking a candidate who can bridge rather than widen the chasm of distrust between Red and Blue America seems like a responsible thing to do. But proclaiming that you will vote for him no matter what, after he tried to bargain with both campaigns for a cabinet post in exchange for his endorsement, is not responsible.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said and done some bizarre things. His extraordinary claim that the Covid-19 virus was “ethnically targeted” to “attack” Caucasians and black people but spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese was inflammatory and unfounded. A man with a law degree who chops the head off a beached whale in violation of the Endangered Species Act and takes it home, or who dumps a road-killed bear in Central Park next to a wrecked bicycle to make it look like a collision, is an unserious person. A candidate for national office who assaults his children’s nanny shows poor judgement. Telling a recent rally that “None of them (abortion, the border, trans rights) are the issues that really matter to you, to me, to our children” was an insulting take on what does matter to an awful lot of people. A candidate who now makes common cause with the biggest threat our democracy has ever known may be intelligent, but is too erratic to be running the country. Even his family has disavowed him.

I agree with Ms. Falkenhagen that allowing the genocide and civilian suffering in Palestine to continue is unconscionable. I also heard Kamala Harris say that she would work to end the war and see that “the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.” It was by no means enough, but it was a start. I’m voting for Harris because I’m also voting against Trump, and now, against Kennedy and all the Project 2025 policy he has by default endorsed. Any realist worth their salt will accept the imperfect and answerable over the bizarre and dangerous. 

Karen Sullivan

Port Townsend