Pete Buttigieg caught my attention because of his willingness to consider reforms to the United States Supreme Court. This is a mark of confidence in us as a people. We the People are as capable as any other generation of taking on a greater level of agency when it comes to thinking about how constitutional reform can make us a more perfect union.

Since then, Pete has continued to articulate the clearest and most responsible vision for the country. He is a sober, realistic and caring candidate. He put his boots on the ground in foreign lands inside foreign conflicts alongside other committed, young and courageous Americans. Service to this country at home and abroad removes the national interest from the realm of abstraction and makes it a daily, living reality.

That reality is infused into his platform. Pete acknowledges the challenges that will face us on the day after President Trump leaves office. He understands that we will have to recover from what we have done to ourselves by electing a crass, unqualified and brutal man whose first loyalties have always been to himself. Succeeding Trump will take a new sort of leadership, one that is not tied to the gridlock and culture conflict that has weighed down past aspirants.

The closer I’ve listened, the more convinced I’ve become that Buttigieg is the best candidate to initiate this national recovery. And so I’ll be voting for a military veteran, a mayor of an industrial city and a contemporary who has done great honor to himself in this national race.

MICHAEL S. LEWIS

Concord