We have 10 months to re-elect Joe Biden and save democracy. Are you in?

Here we go. As anyone not under a rock knows, what’s left of the presidential primary season will not change the outcome: Donald Trump and Joe Biden are all but certain to be the nominees, and the general election campaign has begun.

Democrats shoulder the burden of fighting to save American democracy from its most serious challenge since the Civil War. It is an anxious moment, to be sure, but Democrats have great advantages in this fight.

Donald Trump is a toxic candidate with more negatives than any presidential candidate I can remember. Not even Barry Goldwater — and America worried he would start dropping atomic bombs — was so deeply disliked by the majority of Americans. The pathetic egotism, the constant grifting, the lies, and the lack of any character traits you would want your children to emulate would be enough to doom most candidates. But we don’t have to rely on that. His platform is an indefensible mash of desperate awfulness. He champions banning abortion, taking away our health insurance, and handing Ukraine to Putin. He calls for keeping the border in crisis for his own political purposes and argues that we would be better off if the economy crashed. He promises to be a dictator and to use the power of government to lock up his rivals and shut down news organizations.  On top of that, he appears to be suffering from delusions, thought disorder, and paranoia. As the campaign unfolds, all of this is only going to become more and more obvious.

Joe Biden is not the most popular president in memory. But he is one of the very best. The economy is beating all expectations, inflation is down, and consumer confidence is up. For the first time in a couple of generations, economic growth is not just lifting the very top. American workers are better off than they have been in years. More of us have health care. Joe and the Democrats are squarely with the American people on issues like abortion, guns, voting rights, and basic questions of fairness. Who wouldn’t want to begin a campaign having beaten all expectations and with the evidence to prove it? His popularity is only going to climb.

I know. Nikki Haley is not giving up. And the Supreme Court, not just because it’s the law, but for their own self preservation, might disqualify Trump under the 14^th Amendment. But the GOP has missed every possible off-ramp available to them, and I don’t expect them to find one now. Anyway, on all those policy questions, there is not paper’s width of space between Nikki Haley and Donald Trump. No need to spend any more time on her.

I know there are noises about third parties and independent candidates. Democrats worry that in a close election these efforts could amount to spoilers. Let me remind you that Joe Biden did not participate in last week’s New Hampshire primary. Congressman Dean Phillips ran unopposed on the Democratic side. Folks in New Hampshire went to the polls and wrote Joe in, and he won in a landslide.

Up and down the ballot, what now passes for the Republican Party is engaged in mass delusional thinking about what the country wants, and their own role in our future. The appalling recapitulation of antebellum secessionist war cries on offer in Eagle Pass Texas is just one example. Americans are not going to follow these guys into Civil War.

Democrats need not be scared of this fight. We have never had a better contest and rarely (like once in a hundred years rare) a more consequential one. For the next ten months ,every American gets to put a finger on the scale of history. You and I get to aid the rebirth of American democracy and usher in the world’s first truly multi-racial, multi-faith democracy — one where we respect each other and work together, not just to solve old problems, but to shape the world ahead.

I am motivated to do my part, and I’ve talked to many, many, others who feel the same way.  And, you know what? It feels great.