You’re voting for whom?

that Donald Trump would be a disaster for the country.

“I don’t think my constituents care that much how one person is going to vote,” said Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania when he was asked the obvious question at a recent debate.

Ohio Governor John Kasich claims he’s already voted for John McCain. McCain, who has his own re-election race to deal with, said he may write in his old friend Senator Lindsey Graham. This is literally throwing away your vote since neither Arizona nor Ohio counts writeins for people who haven’t registered as candidates.

The write-in dodge might be appropriate for 20-year-olds who want to demonstrate their moral superiority. But a politician holding high office knows that unless you vote for one of the two major party candidates, you’re not taking part in the most important decision the US public ever makes.

How could you trust a senator to make a principled stand on the budget if she can’t even bring herself to choose a president?

Virtually everybody seems to agree that one current Republican senator, Mark Kirk of Illinois, is doomed. Kirk won Barack Obama’s old seat in the big anti-Democratic upheaval of 2010. In a debate with his Democratic opponent, Tammy Duckworth, Kirk took the interesting tack of making fun of Duckworth’s heritage.

“I’d forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington,” he sniped. Duckworth’s mother is Thai and her family’s history goes back to the Ameri- can Revolution. Have we mentioned she’s a veteran who lost both legs in a helicopter crash?

Kirk has been running desperately away from Trump, who he says is “too bigoted and racist”. You would think this is one case where a Republican with little to lose would figure it’s time to take a stand and admit that although he disagrees with Hillary Clinton on tons of issues, she’s the only candidate who has the capacity to protect the nation’s basic security and safety. But no.

Swing state Republican voters, if you’ve got a hot Senate race involving two unsatisfactory candidates, consider just writing in Thomas Jefferson. He’s not alive, but nobody’s perfect.