For some time in U.S. politics, a large swath of the electorate concluded that Democrats and Republicans were like Coke and Pepsi, two versions of basically indistinguishable sickeningly sweetened corporate junk food.
We hope that the election of Republican Donald J. Trump over Hilary Clinton, his Democratic rival, has put an end to this over-simplified and wrong-headed thinking. Who leads makes a very big difference at every level of our political system.
Our elected officials make decisions that radically change our lives and those whom we all elect will radically affect what decisions made. To suggest that your life depends on who is elected is, in one sense, a gross over-dramatization but, in another important sense, it is simply the truth.