Since this is going to be the most talked about presidential election in many years I will add my two cents. This is a strange time, but all times are strange. Today in this country there is division, one could say that it has always been divided, white and black, men and women, you name it. But I have a sense that there is more here. The conflicts of the past, for centuries nations battled for control over land, resources, etc. The twentieth century had its battles of how societies would be organized, how people were to be governed and in what way things were governed. There is a sense now that there is a longing for the past, its ways that seemed to make sense, and an uncertain future where people feel that they are locked out of a governing system that rules them but does not help or support them. Many feel that its a rigged system for people born into wealth, marry into wealth, are ruthless enough to get it, or lucky. That those who are connected, linked in, the protected class, are given all the advantages while the rest are to fend for yourselves, hope it all works out, and see their aspiring notions of living diminished or dimming. I am not sure that the American Dream can be fulfilled, can be had, can be possible. Why? Jimmy Carter in 1979 made a speech to the american public that called into question the notions of what it means to be a citizen, What the meaning of living in the US meant. He basically said we are valuing what we own, how much money we make, and how this will lead us to isolation. Thinking of advantages over others rather than valuing what we do, how we live meaningful lives and meaningful relationships. Ronald Reagan basically said, will all honesty, thinking truthfully, that we can have the American Dream, that being rich was a meaningful end, that the market solution is the most beneficial solution, that competition and materialism leads to greater prosperity. In a sense "We Can Have More", and that there is no bill to pay, no debt due, no piper to have to compensate. This attitude, the market solution, shared many of the mythos of the other systems in one respect. The Communist, the Fascists, and the Free Market/supply side all thought that the world was without limits, unlimited resources, and that the material gains for what humans want can forever be managed and satisfied. Can we keep growing, more "economic growth", more people, more consumerism, MORE. The sad fact is that as Americans, were lucky in that the mid-20th century the stars aligned, Europe had been flattened by war, Japan was gutted and the rest of the world would be considered "Third World". But that advantage, of political and economic strength, where roughly 5% of the worlds population consumed more than a quarter of the world resources has faded. What Jimmy Carter asked of the US population in 1979, we must change, we must find more value in what we do in out lives and how we live. What he did not say but implied it, was that we have to use less, use less energy, buy less things, own less stuff, and have less stimulation (corporate entertainment, advertising, etc.) and find more meaningful and fulfilling lives. That was rejected for Reagan's Morning in America, that we can have it all, that the bill will never come due. So right now, the system is rigged because it was about having it all. But now, it serves a few and not the many, it serves the blindness of more than the wisdom of moderation. Hillary Clinton has a hard road to go. Can she really get anything done with this vast imperial system that is larger than what any one person can change, can she? But is it still the idea, the mythos of Progress, upwards and onward? Middle class jobs, middle class consumption? Can this continue with seven billion people on this planet hungry for things, and two billion more in the next thirty years? Is it still the mythos of more, and can this planet support it? No, of course not. Look at the melting glaciers of Greenland and the crumbling ice sheets of the Antarctica  as one indication that Nature will now call the tune. And nature does not care, listen to the whispers of the bones of the dinosaurs. Trump may be a narcissist, sociopathic, indifferent to anything but a transactional relationship, but he is offering something that is both seductive, compelling and at the same time under it will have a price to be paid by the american people. The legend of Faust, Christopher Marlow's play, Goethe's play, begs the question, given simple answers to complex problems, you accept the easy and in the end you must pay with something not so simple. In the case of Faust his soul. Trump I think offers some kind of change, or rather the continuation of something that was and that we (or the ones voting for him) will get the bounties of the earth, of production, money and comfort. Make American Great Again, what standards is being used? The past? Can we return to the world of the fifties and sixties? No. But he compelling idea of busting up the room, smashing down the road blocks, kicking ass and taking names may have an appeal. The appeal of action always has a comfort of pro-action, moving is better than standing still, But Trump appeals are based on what one will get, "I will get this, I will get this job back, I will get the pride of nation back, etc." The idea of Americans, this land of the eternal frontier, the eternal dream of progress, is now facing limits. Limits governed by the laws of physics, chemistry and biology. And since reading history or anything else for that matter has never mattered in the US, As Henry Ford said, "History in bunk". The tales of civilizations past is told in the ruins of their palaces and forums, the dirt covered monuments to gods log forgotten. All things must face their decline, decay and the end, death. Am I saying the United States is in decline, yes, am I saying the US is on its way to death, yes. We cannot go home again and the reality is we are slow to change. The 21st century is going to be the century not of growth but of entropy, austerity, and Nature will brush away Adam Smiths invisible hand of the market and break the backbone of our supposed power. We can go slow and steady, with Clinton, A tweak here and a tweak there still wanting it all without having to do with less, or we go fast with Trump, quick, fast, simple, its yours if you say so, but the bill will come due. Clinton will keep the machine going somehow yet the machine is breaking down. Trump could be a disaster. We live by myth, the myth of Clinton (like many of the left) is inclusion into a system that still sees the world as resources, markets, and that we all can live the "Middle Class Life" with no carbon foot print to boot, Trump sustains the myth of progress of lower taxes, deals, economic interests will lead all to the "Middle Class Life" with a tribalist and sectarian ideology. Knowing that politics is a practical business as the character Gracchus (Charles Laughton) says in the 1960 movie Spartacus, I am for Hillary Clinton. I would say that what the great non-starter of everyone in the 1st world is that we must do less, use less energy, have less stuff, own less things, have less empty stimulation. Quality over quantity. This election will be brutal, and nasty. The sides are formed, there is no wiggle room any more. I just hope that we change, for the better, knowing that the future is always uncertain.