At a time when far too many elected officials are willing to mortgage the country for personal gain, Bill Weld is a breath of fresh air. The former Republican Massachusetts governor joined Gary Johnson's Libertarian ticket as the vice-presidential nominee, but now that it's all hitting the fan, he's taking a step back to see the bigger picture. Last night, Weld joined Rachel Maddow on MSNBC to express support for Hillary Clinton, because "it's high time somebody did."

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Bill Weld, Libertarian V.P. candidate "vouching for" but not quite endorsing Hillary Clinton. https://t.co/TrHdheUHJ4 — Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) November 2, 2016

It was a refreshing departure from the many competing absurdities of this campaign season. The only thing rivaling the destructive power of Trump's know-nothing white nationalist romp is the unbearable cynicism of others in his adopted party.

Paul Ryan, the de facto head of the GOP's non-Trumpian wing, said this week that he's already voted for Trump—and others should, too—despite having called Trump's past statements "textbook racism" and saying he "won't defend" the behavior of his own party's nominee. Ted Cruz, whose entire family Trump insulted and who called Trump a "pathological liar," a "bully," and a "narcissist," has endorsed him and is calling voters on his behalf. Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, and many others among Trump's primary opponents have all backed him after trashing him as more than just a rival for the nomination.

(A notable exception is John Kasich, who somewhat bizarrely wrote in John McCain on his ballot.)

Elsewhere in the interview last night, Weld explained that it was the danger Trump poses to our society and body politic, as well as a recognition of Clinton's qualifications, that led him to publicly back Clinton, technically his opponent in this election:

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Predictably, this has raised the ire of someone on the Internet, in this case a libertarian Wikipedia user. It'll be a tough blow when this netizen discovers, perhaps in the campaigns to come, that most people just don't like libertarian ideas:

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Country before party—imagine that.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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