To the Editors:

For loyal Democrats and Republicans, there appear to be cruel choices to be made this fall, especially in the presidential race. Each of the major-party nominees is deeply flawed, and in a variety of ways.

Do not assume for a minute, however, that voters will have only these two choices. There is an actual alternative at hand: the Libertarians.

As your readers may know, former New Mexico two-term Governor Gary Johnson is the Libertarian nominee for president. Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, who also served two terms, is his vice-presidential nominee. Each of them has more elected executive experience than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. In fact, even if you combined their experience, the team of former governors still has more. Neither Johnson nor Weld is an unreasonable person (ask the people who have elected them into office). Happily, neither of them has an explosive, impulsive personality or a squeam-inducing carelessness or lack of character.

It is obvious that the traditional two parties have failed us. Their failure has characterized our politics since even before Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America” and the gridlock that followed, or the ever-creeping Nanny State under Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. In considering the Libertarians, voters will have to remember that the old coalitions and the old accommodations, demonstrably, simply do not work for us anymore. The Republican coalitions that have given rise to a social platform meaner and more discriminatory, while Democrats have continued a foreign policy of regime change and have also grown the size of government at an unsustainable rate.

A radical approach is needed, and it needs to be honest and for the people it serves. Voters do not have to pick the lesser of two evils again this November.

As the Governors Johnson and Weld say in a recent campaign ad, “Give us one term, America, and if after four years, you decide you don’t like peace, prosperity and freedom, you can always vote a Trump or Hillary back into office again.”

– Brandon Bobbitt

Oberlin resident