Battle Creek Enquirer editorial board

It’s been a stomach-churning fall in America, where the ways of obstructionist politics have come home to roost in an uprising of common people hell-bent on seeing their government make sense again.

That those people have coalesced behind a candidate so far-fetched as Donald Trump matters not. Many have argued eloquently that he would be the worst president in the history of our nation.

What’s important here is the emergence of a coalescing force to rage against what has become decades of political stonewalling by power brokers defiant of the best interests of our nation and our people.

We saw it in the upstart candidacy of Bernie Sanders, who tapped into the liberal-progressive wing of the disillusioned. He ran against the Democratic machine that anointed Hillary Clinton, challenging the structural inertia with populist ideals.

Mainstream Republicans, in disarray after a third straight fractious primary season, watched helplessly as Trump amassed the delegates to win their nomination.

So here we are.

The choice? There is no choice. We endorse Hillary Clinton as the only qualified candidate for the presidency of the United States.

The challenge: As we endure four more years of obstructionism, as forces move to develop candidate slates for the 2018 mid-term election in Congress, Americans who are concerned about our dysfunctional government must work hard to put true reformers into positions of power.

Should we fail at reform again and again, the danger grows that a populist candidate who appeals to the base elements of our electorate as Trump does, without his hideous character flaws, may come along and steer us into an abyss.

There’s every reason to believe that new crops of leaders will rise in the springs ahead. Let us sow the seeds of reform wisely.