President Biden doesn’t get enough credit for his accomplishments. His administration has overseen the creation of 15 million jobs (including 800,000 in manufacturing), record unemployment, the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, gun safety legislation, the revival of NATO and defense of Ukraine, the Electoral Count Act, plummeting crime rates, and the U.S. becoming the world’s leading energy producer. This only scratches the surface. (To read the full version of this article, visit hopeanyway.medium.com.)

Biden’s team rebuilt the economy following the pandemic, launched the rebuilding of our nation’s infrastructure, revitalized U.S. manufacturing and tech, and made our country safer. Even marriages and births are up, a sure sign of national optimism. Biden’s administration is, in short, actually making America great again in all the ways Trump promised but couldn’t, to which the GOP can only respond by portraying our thriving nation as a dystopian hellscape.

But, even if Biden wins another term, we’re unlikely to get four more years of this kind of success. The more he appears in public, the more clear his physical and mental decline becomes. After his disastrous debate, Biden’s aides tried to reassure us that he merely had a cold, or jet lag, or didn’t sleep enough — as though we should be reassured that our president can be rendered incoherent by a cold.

Worse than Biden’s performance was the gaslighting by his defenders. People expressing concerns about Biden’s abilities were told to shut up and fall in line. Such demands for obedience felt eerily similar to the very behaviors liberals have long criticized the GOP for, as does Biden’s insistence that only he can protect the nation. His administration also casually dismisses all negative polls, all but calling them “fake news.”

During his recent interview with George Stephanopoulos, Biden said, “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and did the good as job as I know I could do, that’s what it’s all about.” No, Joe, it’s not. It’s about the rights, freedoms and well-being of 300 million Americans. Such a self-centered perspective again greatly narrows the divide between our choices for president.

Biden is unfit to be president. But I’m not voting for Biden; I’m voting for anything-but-Trump, which just happens to be Biden. For all his failings, here’s why even an incapacitated Biden is preferable to any form of Trumpism.

For starters, Trump too exhibits frequent signs of decline. In addition, nearly everything he stated at that infamous debate was a fabrication. Unfortunately, Trump gets away with spouting hateful nonsense and lies simply because we’re used to him sounding like he was just kicked in the head by a horse.

Based on the 2024 GOP platform, Project 2025 and Trump’s campaign promises, the agenda for a second Trump term would include more tax cuts for the rich, amnesty for the Jan. 6 attackers, kneecapping NATO and abandoning Ukraine, replacing independent civil servants with Trump loyalists, using the Department of Justice to exact revenge on Trump’s political foes, making voting more difficult, banning abortion, and restricting birth control. Trump is also promising the most massive deportation of undocumented immigrants in history, which, even if you don’t care about their suffering, would devastate large swaths of the economy that depend on their labor and spending.

There is so much more, but suffice to say that Trump is even more unfit than Biden in terms of experience, character, intelligence and commitment to country. Trump has energy, but so does a toddler, and I’d happily vote for the randomness of a child over the malevolence of this geriatric man-child.

This November, I’m voting stability over chaos, decency over vulgarity, and democracy over despotism. And if Biden really is the puppet of his highly effective administration, so much the better. Frankly, when your only choices are a dead cat and cat crap, you suck it up and eat the cat.

Still, would a sandwich be too much to ask? I’m sure I’m not the only one tired of making the best of bad choices.

Urie is a lifelong Idahoan and graduate of the University of Idaho. He lives in Moscow with his wife and two children. You can find his writing online at Medium (hopeanyway.medium.com) or Substack (hopeanyway.substack.com). Or, you can email him at ryanthomasurie@gmail.com.