His most fervent supporters contend that Biden offers them nothing beyond a “not-Trump” candidacy.

This is what I say to them.

How about a sane immigration policy that does not separate families in crisis or lock children in cages?

How about health care policy that would boost subsidies for struggling families, lower the eligibility age for Medicare, provide a public option, and negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical firms?

How about forgiving student debts for low income students that were incurred at state and community colleges and historically black colleges and universities?

How about raising the minimum wage?

How about an end to trade wars that has led to closures of factories and job losses among exporting industries?

How about an end to reckless foreign policies that are bringing us to the brink of war?

That’s nothing?

Regardless, we don’t have the luxury of demanding enthusiasm, and pointing out a lack of enthusiasm can depress moral and voter turnout.

Fortunately, we don’t have to hold our noses to campaign, support, and vote for Biden.

This country is facing probably the most monumental challenge in its history. Our economy is on life support and a disease outbreak is rampaging through the country.

Our relations with our allies is in crisis, and in that vacuum of leadership authoritarians are on the march.

This is a time for tough, proven leadership that knows how to exercise the levers of power.

During the eight years that followed the debacle of the Bush-Cheney years, the Obama-Biden administration brought the economy back to almost full employment, reformed the healthcare industry and provided coverage for 20 million people, enacted banking reform to curb the worst abuses of the financial sector, rescued two iconic automakers from insolvency, made massive investments in renewable energy, restored our strained alliances and standing in the world community, and honorably ended an ill-conceived and ruinous war.

And Biden’s considerable talents and abilities were pressed into service on Day One.

In 2009 this nation was in the throes of what was then the worst economic and financial collapse of our lifetimes, and President Obama entrusted Vice President Biden to oversee the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – better known as the stimulus.

And despite the controversy over the historic size of the stimulus package, the Obama administration met every spending deadline, and it kept costs so far under budget that it was able to finance over 3,000 additional projects with the savings.

And unlike the current coronavirus stimulus program, in 2009 we put active monitoring and oversight systems to avoid waste, mismanagement and fraud.

And VP Biden was able to convince three Republican Senators – Snowe, Collins and Specter – to break the logjam, cross the partisan aisle, and vote for the stimulus package.

A year later, he convinced Specter to switch parties and provide us with the deciding 60th vote for the Affordable Care Act.

His role in contentious negotiations with obstructionist Republicans also helped reauthorize unemployment insurance during the Great Recession, resolve a taxation deadlock, avoid a fiscal cliff, and diffuse the debt ceiling crisis.

Biden is also a recognized expert on international relations and a former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his stature and relationships with world leaders will be vitally needed as we try to repair the frayed relations that were a result of Trump’s misguided hyper-nationalist misadventures.

As a Senator, Joe Biden also chaired the Judiciary Committee and led efforts to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which included the Assault Weapons Ban and the Violence Against Women Act.

As Vice President, he was integral in President Obama’s attempt to uphold our values and America’s leadership role.

As part of that effort, President Obama wisely enlisted Biden’s talents in the use of diplomacy to solve problems and bring people of various nations together.

When we convened the US-Africa Leaders Summit — and brought along 500 business men and women to forge greater economic ties with one of the world’s fastest growing regions — we reached out to these nations as equals, and that effort culminated in the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which allowed sub-Saharan countries to sell their goods in the United States duty-free and forge stronger ties with American interests.

An historic agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions provided the potential to prevent a nuclear arms buildup in an already unstable Middle East and ease regional tensions, and also possibly free up Iranian oil and gas for the European market, with the potential to undercut Russia’s ability to use its own oil and gas supplies as a geopolitical weapon to counter economic sanctions imposed by America and an energy-dependent Europe in response to Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and its illegal annexation of the Crimea.

Through years of negotiations and diplomacy, we managed to enlist the world’s great powers in the effort, overcame criticism that we would fail to engage the hostile and untrustworthy Iranians, and countered accusations that he was ensuring an Iranian doomsday bomb and exacerbating an existential threat to our ally Israel.

And finally, an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful purposes — unprecedented in the scope and aggressive intrusiveness of its inspections and enforcement regime – had been passed unanimously by the United Nations Security Council and upheld by Congress.

And due to Biden’s mastery of diplomacy and his effective use of personal relationships, this historic effort was not derailed by China’s and Russia’s habitual use of their veto powers in the UN Security Council.

In addition, easing travel restrictions and normalizing relations with Cuba marked the end of the Cold War in the Western Hemisphere and promised to relieve isolation for Cuban citizens, marginalize hardliners, strengthen the hand of reformers, and undercut attempts by Russia and Venezuela to forge wider hemispheric links.

We also reached an agreement with China, the world’s largest carbon polluter, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions — a first for China — and provide 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030; we secured an understanding with India on greenhouse gas emissions; and enlisted 190 countries, including China, to reach a historic agreement, the Paris Accord, to address climate change.

Also under President Obama and VP Biden, we also assembled a 65-nation coalition of allies — and adversaries — to combat the ISIS terrorist group, and overcame ethnic and regional rivalries in order to stand up a regional fighting force that also had the potential to serve as the model for wider regional cooperation, including eventually transitioning into an ongoing regional peacekeeping force and a regional economic development and trade partnership.

We beat back the H1N1, zika and ebola virus, and proactively placed scientists and health professionals in medical hot-spots around the world — including in China — to monitor the emergence or spread of dangerous contagious diseases.

Our attempts to broker a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine, our success in rallying Western Europe to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, our success in getting Syria to surrender its chemical weapons without a fight, our determination to assemble a coalition to combat the terrorist group ISIS on their home turf, and ongoing attempts to address Iran’s nuclear ambitions through diplomacy marked a renewed attempt to organize a world community around something besides war and an attempt to dominate other peoples:

Under President Obama and VP Biden, we strove to reaffirm and uphold the principles that inspired us to save the world from fascism and authoritarianism, and strengthen a community of nations with the capacity to coexist and resolve problems peacefully.

Free trade agreements under negotiation with European and Asia-Pacific powers promised to establish enforceable worker and environmental protections — standards that typically are not championed by the free trade advocates and have not been enforced in past agreements – and blunt the efforts of the investor classes and financial elite to outsource jobs and factories, exploit impoverished citizens in developing countries, pit countries against each other in competition for jobs and investment, and escape the labor and environmental regulations of developed Western nations.

But all that progress is now at risk under an administration that has overturned or undermined consumer protections and regulations designed to protect the public from predatory business practices and the environment from pollution and profiteering, and has alienated longtime allies and security and trading partners.

And so now here we are, facing a restive and anxious set of allies around the world who are now as uncertain of our commitments to them as we now are of our own place in the world — and in an international order which we ourselves largely created and have led for over 70 years.

And our adversaries are increasingly becoming emboldened, more adventurous, and eager to exploit those doubts that we have engendered by our lack of clarity and direction.

And in this rapidly changing state of affairs the world is being forced to call into question our previous assumptions and position of moral authority, status, and fitness for leadership.

And because of Trump’s moves to upend and withdraw from existing agreements and alliances, and because of the ambivalence he has displayed toward allies and security and trade partners, the world is now undergoing a realignment that threatens to leave the U.S. increasingly isolated diplomatically, economically, culturally, and militarily.

In just three years under Trump, the U.S. has gone from the recognized, respected, and undisputed Leader of the Free World to something akin to rogue superpower status.

And in the event of a miscalculation or ill-conceived policy that leads to a general economic reversal or collapse, a widespread outbreak of war, pandemic, or humanitarian crisis, the U.S. could find itself a pariah nation.

We now face a choice between two competing visions and sets of values.

One calls for us to work within and strengthen a hard-fought community of nations and shared values, and to coexist and resolve problems peacefully without a desire to dominate and exploit other peoples.

The other calls for us to look to other nations with suspicion, to enact policies that provide additional benefits and privileges to the richest and most powerful, that limit redress and representation among the most marginalized and powerless, and that act as the ‘muscle’ behind a new global colonialism driven by moneyed interests and unaccountable dealmakers loyal to no country’s flag and which do not enjoy the consent of its people.

For the past 70 years, we have led the way in making the world more free, more safe, and more prosperous, because the rest of the world was convinced of the strength, not just of our economy or military, but also of our principles.

We led because of our commitment to freedom, liberty and justice.

And today, if we are to regain our stature as the leader of the free world, that indispensable nation, and first among equals, we need to restore our moral leadership, and for that we need a man of honor.