It feels terrible to vote for candidates you dislike or distrust, but we’ve all got our own political calculus. Mine is centered on an unbending desire to see Trump’s political career end in humiliating defeat.

An ideal scenario would be voters rendering Trumpism toxic overnight by not only firing him from the presidency, but giving Democrats full control of Congress. Only when Trump proves himself a liability to the party he hijacked can the GOP be reborn as something resembling their supposed ideals, a free market-supporting center-right party that wouldn’t pursue policies like an economically damaging trade war…

Whatever objections I might have to a Biden administration’s policies, I have faith that it would competently manage the machinery of government, rather than hollow it out and replace it with nothing, as Trump did.

I’ve never felt worse about voting for a presidential ticket, but I’m doing it this year, unapologetically and enthusiastically. My hands would probably be shaking as I shade in the ovals on the ballot, if pandemic-life hadn’t robbed me of the ability to feel emotion.