The final month of the 2016 election is going about as terribly as this awful year might have led us to expect, don’t you think? Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are doing their best to affirm the worst opinions voters have of them, and the election seems more than ever like a lose-lose proposition for the country.

The core problem with Trump (though not the only one of course) has always been a character problem. He is unfit for the presidency by virtue of his lack of virtue, and of his intemperate temperament, thuggish bully instincts, unabashed infidelity to all who rely on his word, and staggering lack of focus, discipline, responsibility, and restraint. These are dangerous traits in a decision maker, and a person manifesting them is unlikely to be improved by being given immense power.

As if to prove the point, Trump has spent the past two weeks essentially going mad in public—and in the process recklessly assaulting the legitimacy of our democratic institutions—in response to provocations that involve nowhere near the level of intensity and pressure he would routinely face as president. He has spent this month confirming many of the greatest fears of those intent on keeping him from the presidency.