It is one of the paradoxes of democracy. It harbors and respects its own enemies. It even empowers them to attain the highest office. That is the choice today in the United States. Hillary Clinton is a flawed candidate, as to a higher or lesser degree all persons are. More importantly, she is qualified to run the presidency of the most powerful country in the world. Yes, she has enjoyed the privileges that come with the best education money and brains can buy, as well as the powerful connections that come from a husband who led the U.S. in two consecutive terms. Is that unfair towards the man deprived of the perks that come with wealth and famous names? Indeed. But one, named Barack Obama, made it all the way up, to Harvard and then the White House. And today, if U.S. citizens choose wisely, a woman will take over from him for the first time in American history. Donald Trump is an ignorant bully, a man who cannot think in sentences longer than 140 characters or so, the length of a tweet. We will not repeat what he thinks and has said about women, Mexicans, Muslims or anyone whose bashing enhances the allure of like-minded people who will vote for him. They and their candidate are the enemies of civil society. Democracy can endure them, up to a point. We do not have to travel too far in history to see that sometimes democracy can succumb to its own pathogens. Trump and his ilk want to turn not the clock, but the history calendar back to the dark ages. For U.S. citizens, this is the day to stand up to them.