The March 8 Michigan presidential primary will allow voters in our area to be heard not only on who may run for president, but also on what type of government we want in the future.

On the Democrat side of the divide we have Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton is an old-school establishment Democrat; when we boil down her stand on issues and policies, she is a safe vote for the current system. We will find nothing radical, nothing revolutionary in her approach to our governmental system. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign slogans and issues were found in her husband’s campaign some 23 years ago. She is safe, steady and establishment, a professional politician with strong economic ties to the capitalist system.

Senator Sanders is a very different candidate altogether; he refers to himself as a Democratic Socialist. Most voters have no idea what a Democratic Socialist is, they just like his offer of thousands of dollars worth of free stuff. He calls for social justice and sticking it to the rich and businesses, also to redistribute assets to the poor and downtrodden. The fly in the soup is that pesky thing called the American Constitution, a document thankfully designed to limit the overreaching power of our federal government.

In the Democrat primary we have a choice between staying the course or attempting to abolish our American free market governmental system. Mrs. Clinton, a mostly free market capitalist, or Mr. Sanders, who advocates socialism; the choice is well defined.

In the Republican primary we find a few more choices, but nowhere near the stark differences between them as we find with the Democrats.

Donald Trump, an uber-rich successful businessman, is the outsider and Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio, Governor John Kasich are arguably the professional establishment politicians; Dr. Ben Carson is a non-factor at this point. Every Republican is advocating free market capitalism and smaller government; the only real difference is the level of dedication to the established political system.

Mr. Trump is a builder, figuratively and actually; Senator Cruz prides himself on fighting with almost everyone and being an anti-establishment Republican; Senator Rubio is the establishment’s choice as a president who stays the course in the same way Mrs. Clinton will. Governor Kasich is the most qualified, establishment safe professional candidate running in either party, but at this point he also appears to be a non-factor.

Of all the candidates in both parties, everyone with the exception of Mr. Trump and Dr. Carson (pretty much out of the running) are of the professional political class; even Senator Sanders has 35 years as a professional career politician. In this primary we have a choice; change, especially radical change, is attractive, but history teaches us it is not always the best choice. Do we vote for a stable government administered by establishment experienced politicians, or do we walk on the wild side? Each and every candidate is a safe choice for retaining 98% of our current system with the exception of Senator Sanders and Mr. Trump.

In Secretary Clinton, Senators Cruz and Rubio, and Governor Kasich we find, as Ross Perot said during his unsuccessful presidential campaigns, “There is not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats.” There are thousands of issues and both parties are in agreement on 98% of them, even Senator Sanders agrees with the party’s stand on darn near every issue.

Senator Sanders, the candidate seen as the most radical, will not be able to change many things because he will be limited by the Constitution, our two-party system and the Supreme Court (many of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s socialist programs were struck down by the court).

So who will effect real change? Who will be able to immediately “fix” our bloated inefficient governmental system? No one will; change will be slow because thankfully, it is the way our Constitution mandates it be done.

Like it or not, to accomplish anything in our governmental system we must use the dreaded “C” word, compromise. Deals need to be made, compromises need to made, relationships built and legislation hammered out. The best at it in my opinion if you are a Democrat it is Secretary Clinton, or Mr. Trump for the Republicans.

Please remember to vote, and always support and defend our constitution.