Ohio Gov. John Kasich pauses as he speaks during a news conference at The Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens on May 4 in Columbus, Ohio. Kasich announced the end of his underdog White House bid. AP

As is true of the spirited song by Billy Joel titled “Only the Good Die Young,” the same may now be said about John Kasich and his bid for the GOP nomination.

In exact terms his candidacy can’t be said to have “died young,” but in practical terms it can. After all, from the earliest days of the Republican nominating process, Kasich was seldom seen as anything more than the one lucky enough to have Ohio to hang his hat on.

Not unlike George McGovern, Bill Bradley or Jimmy Carter, but not like a whole lot of others either, Kasich may well be thought of as too good a person to succeed in the big-league game of dirty presidential politics. And yet what does this say about an American nominating process that would favor the sharp elbows and loud mouth of a Donald Trump over the mannerly Kasich?

In some ways, this question calls to mind the inimitable song of yesteryear by Don McLean, “American Pie.” This mournful classic of American balladry bid our nation’s innocence one firm final farewell, in a panoramic and surreal way, as if all that had led to our country’s undoing during the 1960s had at last come to wrap itself up in some defamed American flag and then, setting itself on fire, said goodbye to the decadence, the violence, the waste.

America is just now on the verge of making something of the same mistake. If the stewardship of the free world is handed over to someone who seems more comfortably suited to sit astride a bull in Pamplona than to pull up a chair in the Oval Office, who knows what will happen.

In addition to other instances of questionable behavior, this is someone who has spoken freely to the press about his extramarital affairs, and that is to let alone any discussion of Trump University. Furthermore, with almost six months more of this monkey-ride to go, a thoughtful and intelligent person would have to ask himself just what the whole of it is about.

Well, for one thing, this is about the once-coveted ethos of decorum, propriety and a more grown-up version of discourse giving way to bluster, pomposity and absurdity, which as an expediency currently defines American politics. And a word to the wise: As such, the country may not expect too many good tidings to come for a long time.

I am inclined, too, to think about John F. Kennedy, who (his own sexual exploits aside) was the standard-bearer of his time of all that was classy, elegant and chic, and who represented certain political properties or qualities that seem all but absent in today’s miasma.

So we are left with little more than our lamentations over our irreplaceable “Camelot,” the very existence of which was predicated upon the way the Kennedy couple simply conducted themselves.

I write this to express a sense of sadness, caution and confusion. If Donald Trump is elected president as a quick measure to fix a long-standing problem, the worst-case scenario might be a nuclear exchange. For such is in his manner, in the way he grimaces like a bear or a latter-day Benito Mussolini, and in the way his broad shoulders and barrel-sized chest thrusts forward in a me-first fashion, and in the way in which his demeanor suggests complete certitude, which of course is reserved but for the angels.

Meanwhile, almost as if to do penance, John Kasich now returns to his quieter duties in Ohio, while at the same time having a chance to catch his breath from the obdurate runaround he has almost wrongly been subject to.

As perhaps you can tell, I rather like Mr. Kasich, and I just couldn’t let his bid for his party’s nomination slide crookedly off the political page without saying something good and complimentary about the man, because I think he deserves it.

When I was a youngster, my mother delivered a tongue-lashing I will never forget concerning the word “decent.” I don’t remember what I did exactly that day to bring on her wrath, but I must have done plenty, as I do remember the precise wording by which she made sure I would stand corrected.

“Your father,” she yelled at me from the kitchen table, “is a decent person. And you’re not!”

I submit something of the same regarding Donald Trump. He is not a decent person, and John Kasich is. Isn’t it too bad that more of us didn’t wake up to this fact before it was too late?

(Timothy Langlais lives in Concord.)