It’s difficult to describe what’s good about Joe Biden without describing what’s awful about Donald Trump.

Biden will respect expertise and surround himself with competent people. That means respecting science on the new challenge of COVID-19 and the old challenge of climate change.

Biden will listen to other points of view, starting with his vice president. He has already worked with Bernie Sanders on a “unity” platform. The more Democrats that are elected to Congress, the more of a chance these things have of becoming reality.

Biden is also less prone to spouting utter bullshit than Donald Trump, who has created a whole industry of people working feverishly to document his lies (20,000 through July, The Washington Post reports), some of them so outrageous that you wonder how anyone could possibly take him seriously.

These things should be obvious, of course. But frankly, they weren’t necessarily true of other Democratic candidates.

And they’re certainly not true of the most malignant man to live in the White House, at least since before the Civil War.

If you’re unconvinced of this, consider the following arguments and the links I’ve compiled to support each one …

Cruelty: In the Trump cult, empathy is a bad thing.

Immigration: Always a net positive for the USA but a scapegoat and a racist dog whistle for Trump.

Environment: Even aside from climate change, what Trump has done has been horrific.

Guns: Not something really addressed in the past four years, for better in some respects but mostly for worse.

Foreign policy: There’s hardly an ally Trump hasn’t alienated. Well, maybe Saudi Arabia.

Economics: Trump has taken credit for growth he did nothing to engender, and his tax cuts just racked up national debt while adding to the nation’s inequality.

Corruption: If Congress had any sense of duty or morality, we’d be voting out President Pence right now. Maybe even President Pelosi.

Authoritarianism: The scariest aspect of Trump and his cult is that they will change the very fabric of the U.S. government for their cruel intentions.

We have many issues to address and many viewpoints to consider. With any luck, the next four years will be a productive discussion between progressives and centrists, with the incompetent and heartless people who’ve been in power for four years pushed off to the sideline. I look forward to finding common ground and solutions.

But Job #1 needs to be done by Nov. 3.

If you don’t do it, frankly, you’ve failed your fellow human being and will have to live with it the rest of your life.

This is our Normandy. This is our Gettysburg. And we don’t have to charge toward machine-gun nests on a beach or across a bloody battlefield to rise to the challenge.

You just have to vote.

If you’re not inclined to wait in a socially distanced line on Nov. 3, look up your state’s voting policies.

Then make sure your vote has been counted. Most election boards have websites on which you can check the status of your ballot.

Then we can breath a sign of relief Nov. 4 or 5 or whenever the count is finished.

Then we can get to work to make sure this country never again turns upon its own people.