I like Bernie Sanders well enough. I like his passion and his vision. I don’t have much faith in his ability to deliver on his promises. Much of this stems from my deep disappointment with his campaign. Like most people who follow politics regularly, I didn’t give Sen. Sanders very good odds against the prohibitive favorite. Then, almost overnight, the Sanders campaign drew the sort of numbers that grant instant viability. He had crowds of passionate people motivated to work toward our common aims. This was the moment where Bernie Sanders nearly changed history.

This was when he could have rolled out a detailed and well thought-out progressive agenda that could have forever put the lie to the idea that we can’t do all the things progressives have long agitated to achieve. Just imagine what today, on this Super Tuesday, would have looked like with both major contenders for the Democratic nomination outdoing each other to produce the most well reasoned plan to actually implement progressive ideas. Imagine the discussion around competing versions of true public options in our healthcare system. Imagine a true national discussion where Democrats forcefully put forth the case that only good government can save Capitalism from the capitalists. Imagine a world where we discussed restoring the sensible regulations on banks that was part of the largest peace time economic expansion in our history. What a world that would have been.

Instead, we got inchoate plans and “get off my lawn” level cantankerousness. I have heard it said that one of the best arguments in favor of Sen. Sanders is that these are the issues he has been wrestling with his entire career. If this is so it remains a mystery to me how he hasn’t managed to craft policy positions married with real, verifiable plans to achieve them. It may be that even if Sen. Sanders proposed such plans he would still loose to Secretary Clinton. I surmise that whichever nominee emerged from this crucible of ideas would have been better for it. The Democratic party would have been better for it. America would have been better for it.

This is not even to address Sen. Sanders’ seeming disinterest in foreign policy. Going to war is not a grand strategy. But neither is not going to war. Something more than a mere disdain for war would be necessary to garner my vote on the basis of foreign policy.

Unfortunately for Sen. Sanders, he bears the weight of the earnest hopes I glimpsed in him for one moment in 2015. Unfortunately for all of the rest of us, my earnest hopes in him have proven illusory.

So today I am voting for Hillary Clinton. I trust her to preserve our union. I trust her to try her utmost to banish those ails which rend the soul of our country to the best of her abilities. I trust that she understands that the ails of persistent racism, endemic poverty, and yawning inequality have no place in a great nation. And I also trust her abilities.

I like most of her positions. I like most of her plans. I like that she understands the mechanics of governing. I like that she understands that we live in interesting times. I like that she intuitively understands that America is exceptional.

I make my choice with eyes wide open. I recognize that she has been willing to change her positions based on polls. I recognize that her well calibrated position on the #blacklivesmatter movement came only after she saw her opponents badly fumble the question. But I also recognize that she is the best thing going. Her mastery of policy, both foreign and domestic, is unmatched by any other candidate running for president.

Far from merely holding my nose and voting, I am genuinely impressed by Sec. Clinton’s accomplishments and policies. I look forward to these policies coming to fruition. Sec. Clinton speaks to the policy wonk inside my head. The dreamer in my heart, however, remains unaddressed.

I believe that these times are interesting not merely because the direction of our country is at stake, but also because our very soul is. Every election we must reaffirm our commitment to provide today for tomorrow’s promise.

We are accustomed to being called to do this by grand pronouncements of our worth, the virtue of our work, and a president’s vision for tomorrow. We are accustomed to being recalled to our nature’s better angels. We are accustomed to being reminded that our society is great and our frontiers are new. We are accustomed to being told to ask not and that the torch has been passed. We expect to hear that it is morning in America and that the future is not an inheritance, but an obligation.

In short, we expect to hear what a president, or prospective president, envisions for America’s tomorrow. We expect a coherent expostulation of the sum of their proposed America. For in these interesting times we need only be reminded that we must face the future with a confident determination to remain that exceptional place called America. We expect to know in advance what that place called America looks like to each candidate.

I expect to know what that place looks like to candidates that ask for my vote. My head may be decided, but my heart is casting about still. Absent this vital soul fulfilling information, I will vote with my head. And I’m voting for Hillary Clinton.

(Hillary. Feel free to enlighten me.)