That third choice may seem the best choice to some voters, but it isn’t the best choice for our country.

There are a significant number of voters out there who feel they have no place to go. Republicans who value country over party look at the Republican nominee and recoil. On the other hand, they cannot bring themselves to vote for the Democrat nominee who has been the object of GOP venom for over a generation.

There are Democrat Bernie supporters out there who cannot come to grips with Bernie’s defeat at the hands of a candidate who lacks the charisma, and the inspirational – perhaps even transformational – message of that old guy from Vermont who spoke directly to their hearts and aspirations. They are not about to vote for The Donald, but they can’t bring themselves to vote for the woman whose campaign of attrition ultimately ground down and doomed Bernie’s crusade.

I suppose there are some out there who simply cannot countenance the thought of a woman in pant suits supplanting some guy in pants when it comes to calling the shots from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

For these folks, if they can’t bring themselves to vote for the major party candidates, the third choice is obvious: Don’t vote for either one. The options are clear: Vote for a third party candidate – or don’t vote at all.

The latter option should be a non-starter. So much blood and treasure have been expended over the last 240 years to preserve the right of Americans to vote in free elections; failure to exercise that right is a betrayal of the basic duty of a citizen in a representative democracy, i.e. to participate in their own self-governance.

So that leaves the other option: Vote for someone other than the two major party candidates.

Gary Johnson and Jill Stein come to mind, but they are not alone. While not on the ballot in every state, or in any state, there are roughly 26 candidates running for president this year, according to the International Business Times.

If the orphan voter, the undecided, the persuadable, find some other option that speaks to them, by all means, cast a vote based on an informed choice.

On the other hand, if the vote for a third-party candidate is merely a fig leaf to avoid voting for either major party candidate, yet still have voted, serious reconsideration is in order.

Either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be the next president of these United States. Period. There may be reason to be unhappy about the hand that has been dealt, but America’s voters dealt that hand to themselves.

Now it is time to live with it.

Our country needs a definitive decision. Some razor-thin margin doesn’t cut it. The legitimacy of our current president has been under attack for the last eight years. To be fair, the legitimacy of his predecessor’s victory in 2000 has also been called into question. Already, according to televised reports, half of all Trump voters have little or no confidence that the vote count will be accurate, a narrative

the candidate has been nurturing. It is time to clear the air. One of these two major party candidates needs a clear mandate to govern; otherwise, the Washington gridlock is likely to continue as congressional obstructionists feel they have continued license to obstruct.

For all the sound and fury, for all of the oratorical gymnastics of the surrogates, for all the millions and millions of dollars that could have been spent more constructively elsewhere, it all comes down to this: To whom should that mandate to given? Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?

It’s as simple – and as inescapable – as that.

To be clear, however the orphan voter, or undecided, or persuadable, tries to spin it in their own minds, a vote for any candidate other than Hillary Clinton is a vote for Donald Trump.

If the voter can live with this, or thinks they can, will there be remorse on Nov. 9, and if not then, perhaps as they watch The Donald redecorate the White House in garish gold gilt Louis XIV furnishings and crystal decadence?

Choose wisely.

But choose.