To the editor:

My friend Ed White misses the point. I was not writing about Trump vs. Clinton, at least not directly. I was not even speaking of the independent justification for the different candidates. You cannot justify Trump by criticizing Clinton, or vice versa. Hillary Clinton cannot be justified as a candidate solely on the basis of Trump being a bad candidate, or person. The question remains whether either of them can be justified on their own terms.

I did not see that Ed, whom I know to be a thoughtful and reasonable man, attempted to justify Trump. If he did, I would pay attention. His letter does not say that Mr. Trump is qualified to be president. But, like I say, I did not mean to speak on that.

What I did mean to say was that Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump is the aftermath of a tantrum. Trump is about what happens when you’re mad and scream something you don’t really mean. I think the Trump phenomenon is a protest against frustration.

What I meant to invoke was what comes after a hissy fit. What do you do when you’ve painted yourself into a corner, and you know you’ve been wrong? Nominating Donald Trump is wrong. That’s when pride gets in the way. What do you do when you’ve defunded government to the point it can’t pay for schools? What will we do?