Between his massive delegate lead, every major Democrat endorsing his campaign, and all other candidates dropping out, it’s become increasingly clear that Joe Biden will be the Democratic presidential nominee. This comes as a disappointment to many liberals, including myself, who hoped that a progressive standard-bearer, such as Bernie Sanders, would be the candidate who took on Donald Trump in November. However, no matter how upset we are, we must still do everything in our power to put Biden in the Oval Office come November.

While many progressives argue that Joe Biden doesn’t represent their values, and they cannot in good conscience support him, I argue that, in not supporting him, they will be complicit in the re-election of one of the most dangerous and evil men to ever hold the office of the president. The 2020 election will be one of the closest elections in modern history, and while I understand that some people may not be fully comfortable in supporting Joe Biden, we must remember that if we do not fully support him now, we will see President Donald Trump in the White House for four more years. 

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden have many differences, and many people in the far left have suggested that, because Biden is farther to the right than Bernie, he is equivalent to Trump. This cannot be farther from the truth. Whether it be healthcare, where Biden’s plan would provide insurance for at least 17 million more people than Trump’s, climate change, which Biden has described as “an existential threat” and Trump has described as “a hoax made up by and for China,” or even issues such as a 15 dollar minimum wage, something that Bernie and Biden fully agree on, while Trump has changed his own views on it too many times to tell where he stands. Biden, while not perfect, is infinitely better than Trump, and, at the very least, isn’t ignorant or cruel enough to ignore the needs of the country and the world because of a Twitter fight with Meryl Streep. 

Perhaps the biggest reason why Bernie Bros must not let their dislike of Biden keep them from voting, volunteering, and donating, is the federal court system. The Trump administration has forced through 193 judges, including two life-term appointments to the Supreme Court. This is an unprecedented number of judges for one term, and he has appointed them with one thing in mind: creating a decades-long conservative majority that would destroy every right we as decent humans have fought so hard to attain. If given four more years to appoint judges, Trump will be able to appoint replacements to two aging liberal Justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, and will be able to solidify conservative majorities in every branch of the U.S. judiciary.

The reasoning leftists give to support their opposition to Biden is that he simply does not represent their values. While they point to many policy differences between Bernie and Biden, perhaps the most important differences involve taxes and healthcare. Biden opposes both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders’ wealth taxes, instead opting for more incremental increases in taxation on the upper class and corporations. This, although not nearly enough to get rid of the disgusting wealth gap in America, is still a large improvement over Trump’s plan, which expands the wealth gap by allowing the top 20 percent of American’s to see a three percent increase in their income, while the bottom 20 percent only see an increase of 0.4 percent. Biden’s plan, unlike Trump’s, does increase taxes on the rich and forces the wealthy to pay their fair share. 

The second major disagreement between Biden and Bernie is on healthcare, specifically Medicare for All. Again, while Biden’s plan doesn’t go nearly as far as Bernie’s, it still expands coverage for 17 million Americans that aren’t covered by Obamacare. So far, Trump has not managed to get his main goal of repealing Obamacare and leaving 47 million Americans without coverage, however, through his tax policies he has still managed to take away insurance from over one million people. Despite the fact that Biden’s policies are in no way perfect, when put head-to-head with the current administration, it’s clear that refusing to support Biden does nothing other than harm working people across the country.   

If allowed to remain in office, Donald Trump will continue to endanger every human being on the face of the planet with his idiocracy and immoralism. Any sane person can see that, despite Biden’s flaws, he is infinitely better than four more years of President Trump and 30 years of a 7-2 conservative Supreme Court majority that would surely come if we allowed this monster a second term. So please, if you care about humanity, put aside your love of Bernie and do everything in your power to get Trump out of office. Vote, volunteer, donate, not because you agree with Biden on every issue, but because you know how much harm Trump could do if given a second term. •