“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
― William James

If you are a man in this life, don’t get caught whining.

Better yet, just don’t do it.

No one wants to hear it.

Exhibiting the degree to which a bubble-wrapped and privileged lifestyle prevented him from becoming a mature man, Donald Trump spent the last four years whining in public and tweeting like a frazzled tween. I’ll leave the analysis to the psychologists about what mental perforations assail this spoiled and childlike individual. But any man should find his behavior deeply offensive. I think about guys like my late cousin Walt pinned down at Khe Sanh and coming home with shrapnel in his skull, and I try to piece together the wounded, vituperative rantings of this guy in the White House and simply feel ashamed. I think about my old man, serving his country in the Cuban Missile Crisis with John F. Kennedy in the chair of command, and watch the Oval Office briefings, pained that a proud Navy veteran has to witness this mollycoddled schoolboy scourge.

If my daughter ever brings home a whiner like Trump, I’ll make damn sure he loses her address.

Or die trying.

We don’t need to spend much time examining why we’re in this crisis. Not everyone of us is John Lewis, God knows, or even a semi-good father or passable husband or provider. In this case, our worst solipsism and a collective ego-induced coma inflated our worst selves to the proportions of president. But we are a country that digs out of our mistakes, and painstakingly re-corrects out of our failings. We have always advanced incrementally and – regrettably – in bloody fashion. It’s why we get Barack Obama then have to suffer Donald Trump. The forces of literacy must steer-wrestle with illiteracy. But last night, Constitutional Law Professor (and former President) Obama reminded us of the primacy of our country’s documents and of the path of our continuing struggle to realize their codified promise for everyone. This intellectual rigor and vitality at the heart of America make all of us natural sons and daughters of the Enlightenment. It’s a hard inheritance, however, and as such, we can little afford European remnants of royalism warmed over as a facsimile of western democracy. That’s fine for crass entertainment, but not in the chair of judgment.

The country’s simply too tough-fibered.

These times underscore the fundamental need, not of rarified tower dwellers intent on their TV ratings and content to play havoc with our fundamental voting rights, but of adults honed by the ground game of the country itself.

Joe Biden – our choice for president – is a flawed but valuable public servant. He has made critical errors over the years, including his authorship of the 1994 three strikes and you’re out law, his opposition to busing, and his “yes” vote on the Iraq War. While his son Hunter held a $50,000-a-month job on the board of a Ukrainian energy company under investigation, then-Vice President Biden called for the resignation of the Ukraine’s prosecutor general. He needs to speak directly to his lack of judgment on those fronts. But Biden’s public record contains many instances of good judgment and a routine demonstration of good temperament. Critically, he served in an administration anchored by the Obama Doctrine, which in the aftermath of a $2 trillion debacle in Iraq, insisted on repairing our alliances, not to weaken American power but – in the truest sense of a conservative ideology – to distribute a burden of foreign intervention to help maintain our domestic strength. As a United States senator, he authored the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which allocated $1.6 billion to investigate and prosecute crimes against women. He joined Barack Obama on a history-making ticket in 2008 and despite campaigning hard against John McCain, still fulfilled the late Republican stateman’s intentions to deliver a eulogy at Senator McCain’s funeral.

Biden has repeatedly shown toughness in rising to meet his political duties, as he did following President Obama’s poor first debate performance against Mitt Romney in 2012 with a strong showing against then-Speaker Paul Ryan. The former vice president strived throughout his public life to find a way to connect with people and forge consensus. He speaks in a cogent, forceful and direct way, a consequence of maintaining obvious connections to our country’s primary documents and to the people they aim to protect.  Our American Language remains a vital part of our interconnectedness, and Biden – at his best – is one of our best communicators. His style is pragmatic in the best tradition of William James, American and diplomatic, reflective of the gravity of our country’s role in the western world, and of working-class people. The suffering he experienced when he lost his first wife and daughter and his son Beau reinforced his empathy, and we need that now, along with a strong commitment to the country as we attempt to rebuild from the havoc of the Trump era.

These are hard days for Americans. You don’t need to read it. You live it.

State Senator Ronald L. Rice (D-28) – an early and vocal backer of Biden in the Democratic Primary – said last month that he is tired of Trenton resistance to his efforts to recruit more African-Americans to the ranks of state law enforcement. I too am frankly tired, in this case, of the cynicism and indecency among those who would continue to prop up a moronic, narcissistic and hateful presidency, pretending it does something other than instruct in the profound hazards of ignorance. But more than that, I feel hopeful and I feel emboldened by the essential survival capacity of America to gut through our present hardships. Not far from here is a town called Scranton. It sits in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania. It’s poor. It’s the kind of place that’s been knocked down and repeatedly counted out. It’s a tough town. But a kid named Joe Biden fought out of there, and if he’s more like you and me than most, that’s fine. But what he reflects more than that, critically, is a lesson he learned at the heart of the United States, to respect and deeply honor those foundations on which we stand, for here we may more richly understand and honor one another, and more deeply and fairly live up to that demanding and vital core of our tough and enduring country.

Vote Joe Biden for President in 2020.

Max Pizarro is the editor of InsiderNJ.