Back to my 2004 comment, if this were then

I would wholeheartedly agree. I remember being stupidly pissed about Bush, but in the end life went on, our country continued existing. Maybe policy went the other way that I wanted it, but a robust congress (hah, in theory) forced a compromise bill rather than pure single-party goodies. We tested civil liberties a heck of a lot in the early 2000s, but our institutions held.

This is basically, in my mind, "meh" vs "let's test how far someone can go in his own self interest and maybe not cause an actual second civil war". So many of our guardrails have been predicated on strong institutions and good men/women that we had no plan for when a lot of people fell into line behind a bad one.

Voting for Biden isn't intended to be a signifier that you embrace him - it's a game of "who would you rather". I would that we had RCV or similar such that you could say "THIS person embodies my principles but if they don't get in, this person is ok, I guess".