Dear [REDACTED],
This is not the usual case of every candidate having extreme supporters. Over the last twenty years in this country we have witnessed the growth of genuine ethno-nationalist politics on the order of the National Front in France. (See
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/birthers-trumpists-and-a-crisis-for-the-gop/2015/09/04/3b3e2074-5308-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html …). Trump has been committed to the ethno-nationalist paradigm for some time now. It is not clear precisely how he would move it forward in the presidency, but that is his single most consistent commitment. Add to that the temperament of a bully who disregards basic rights and you have a recipe for quite dangerous outcomes. I am not a supporter of Sanders, though you are right to compare him and Trump. Yes, in some sense, they have both got the right diagnosis. But where Sanders offers socialism, Trump offers ethno-nationalist protectionism (
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/americas-seismic-division-on-race/2016/01/08/48a14f66-b61d-11e5-a842-0feb51d1d124_story.html …).
I also agree with your diagnoses about inequality (
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/authors/danielle-allen …). But I could not disagree more with your solution. My own preferred candidate never did very well but here was my view:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ts-time-to-take-a-serious-look-at-martin-omalley/2016/01/27/1cf1f040-c465-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html ….
There are two pieces of work that need to be done: we need to hold the republic together, as a republic, including with a set of unimpeachable commitments to basic rights, constitutional proceduralism, and legality. And, yes, we need to address inequality. But if you give up the republic, as you are proposing doing, you will never be able to solve the issues of inequality over the long term.
While neither Clinton nor Rubio is the best possible candidate, I believe that each of them, in contrast to Trump, will actually preserve the republic long enough for us (all of us, not just the politicians) to work toward long-lasting, durable solutions to the problem of inequality.
I would, finally, enjoin you to re-read the Declaration of Independence. Re-read the Constitution. Re-read, above all, the Federalist Papers. Re-read Chernow’s biography of Washington. Have a look, if you have the time, at my own book on the Declaration (called Our Declaration). Consider what those texts can teach us about the relationship between leadership and the sustainability of republican forms of self-government. I truly believe that this is what is now at stake.
Yours sincerely,
Danielle