This presidential election is a battle for America’s soul.

The intensity is exhausting, sometimes infuriating. It may be tempting for voters to sit it out. But don’t do it. If ever your vote counted, it is now.

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Pitts: Donald Trump is a poor excuse for a man The choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for president is stark – more so than any other in living memory. Yes, both candidates are flawed. But in the sheer scale of those flaws, there is no comparison.

Vote for Hillary Clinton.

Clinton is highly qualified to be president. Trump is utterly unqualified. If he wins – which could happen if enough good citizens stay home Election Day – the shifts in American society affecting minorities, women, immigrants, Muslims and others will sharpen divides among us rather than healing them, as Clinton would try to do.

As first lady in Arkansas and the White House, a U.S. senator and Secretary of State, she worked tirelessly, accomplished much and gained wide experience – some of it from making mistakes, but if you learn from them, that’s the best kind.

Clinton’s vision for rebuilding America’s middle class makes sense. Trump’s reversion to massive tax cuts benefiting his own businesses and the wealthy has never produced the trickle-down benefits promised. During the Reagan administration, the national debt soared.

Clinton has promised real immigration reform – the kind a majority of Americans and pro-business Republicans favor, with better-enforced borders but also a path, not a free pass, to legal residency. Trump’s wall is an international embarrassment.

Clinton favors reasonable gun regulation; Trump is all-NRA. Clinton would lead the world in fighting climate change; Trump has said it’s a plot made up to help China.

The core problem with Trump is not his policies, however. It’s the character of the man: His stunning disregard – or ignorance – of facts about domestic and particularly foreign policy issues, most evident in his admiration of Russian leader and international thug Vladimir Putin; his frequent denial of having said or done things that are factually provable; his refusal to release his tax returns or put his businesses in a blind trust if he wins, opening wide the door to corruption.

Trump says he will “Make America Great Again,” leaving followers to fantasize about simplistic solutions to terrorism and an isolationist economy. White supremacists love him. No wonder.

And now Trump refuses to say he will accept the results of the vote if he loses. This is a marker in the course of our democracy, whose strength since the Civil War has been grounded in the tradition that candidates and parties respect election results. It is what sets us apart from the Russias and Zimbabwes of the world.

Clinton’s shortcomings are well reported. She mishandled the email server controversy, dismissing it as a problem for too long. She dodges questions about the Clinton Foundation.

But the business career Trump touts as qualification for president is a horror of public accountability – an empire built on stiffing lenders and contractors, avoiding taxes (no, not every rich person does this; ask Warren Buffett) and exploiting women and immigrant labor.

For all these reasons, your vote never was more important.

Trump’s faithful will go to the polls. If Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans stay home, they will not only increase the chance of a Trump victory but also leave other important decisions – from local races to the raft of California ballot propositions – for others to decide.

Confidence in democracy and traditional institutions today is low worldwide. But the democracy we have built remains the best hope of keeping civil society together. Clinton offers the stability, judgment and international respect to make sure the center holds.

Vote for her. And vote on all the other races and measures on the ballot. It’s not somebody else’s job. It’s yours.