I know there are millions of people agonizing over the election in a manner similar to Laurence H. Tribe (“Onward from the election,’’ Opinion, Nov. 18). I am surely one of them. I am a humanities teacher and a parent of a married lesbian stepdaughter and an adopted Colombian son. Need I say more? It is incredibly painful to read Tribe’s thoughtful analysis of how different a Trump presidency will be than a Clinton presidency might have been.

Tribe is obviously a passionate, intelligent, and decent man, which brings a progressive thinker like me a second wave of pain. The neoliberal agenda initiated by President Bill Clinton, and then sustained by President Obama and Hillary Clinton, includes policies devastating to working people, overly aggressive and vastly expensive military actions, and a dedication to the well-being of wealthy Americans. If the Democratic Party fails to reckon with this reality, we could see the United States become an authoritarian state we barely recognize.

The Democrats should begin with single-payer healthcare, a position favored by 58 percent of Americans, which sounds like a winning strategy to me.

Robert Boyd

Cheshire, Conn.