We either want a dictator or a democracy. With Biden out, we have one chance to get this right.

Anyone paying attention to our political climate crisis since President Joe Biden’s debate performance could feel something was coming.

But even I was unprepared for the tsunami of emotions that crashed onto the New Jersey beach I happened to be on when Biden announced he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race Sunday afternoon:

Sadness.

From the elderly couple who expressed their sorrow on the beach blanket behind me while my phone incessantly pinged with messages from people who wanted to know if I’d heard. (The historic presidential exit heard ‘round the world? Yeah … I think everyone heard.)

Shock.

From half the group sitting in the beach chairs in front of me, with some cheers from the others.

Anger.

That last emotion was mostly mine and directed at the people who bailed on Biden while offering no concrete path to victory in a presidential election that is now just 107 days away.

So here we are — and let’s be really clear on where here is: Anyone who hasn’t pledged their allegiance to Donald Trump better get it together and unite in defeating the Dear Leader and his cult. (And, yes, it’s an ear bandage-wearing cult. Time to call everything what it is.)

And no one should work harder to defeat them than those people who wasted so much of our time on their pearl-clutching over Biden’s age and debate performance without offering much in the way of a backup plan for an election upon which the fate of our democracy rests. (And if you listened to any of the Republican National Convention last week, you know that is hardly hyperbole.)

Way to go, America!

Yes, I’m angry — as any American citizen who values our country should be right now.

But guess what? We don’t even have time to be all up in our feelings, not less than four months before Election Day, because while politicians and pundits were wasting even more time last week falling so enthusiastically for the GOP narratives about a united Republican Party and how Trump was a changed man, the candidate himself wasted no time showing us — once again — just who he and his party truly are.

And he didn’t just do that by his inability to keep his vile and violent rhetoric in check for longer than a half hour after accepting his party’s nomination at the RNC on Thursday.

Nope. Moments after Biden’s announcement that he was withdrawing from the race, Trump doubled down on his chaotic brand of divisiveness with a deranged statement.

“Crooked Joe Biden is a complete fraud and a disgrace to our Country,” said the twice-impeached, xenophobic, convicted felon who inexplicably insists on a puzzling philosophy of random capitalization. He added that Biden has been so “weak” and “incompetent” that “World leaders are laughing at us.”

And honestly, at this point, I actually believe that. Because who watching this clown show wouldn’t laugh at a country voluntarily handing their democracy to a wannabe dictator who has respect for nothing and no one more than himself and his own insatiable hunger for power?

So now it’s Vice President Kamala Harris atop the Democratic Party presidential ticket after Biden endorsed her — and I’m good with that, even while I worry about the “whitelash,” to borrow a phrase from journalist Wesley Lowery, that has marked white grievance in our country since President Barack Obama’s election, and the calls for racial reckonings in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer.

“My intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris declared moments after Biden announced his intention to abandon the race and support her. “We have 107 days until Election Day,” Harris said. “Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”

We better win — and in order to do that, we better get it together fast. That includes people who say the right things in mixed company but do the wrong things when it comes time to vote.

Yeah, I’m talking to nearly half of this country’s white women who voted for Trump in both elections.

As I was rushing off the beach to write this column, I passed a man who looked around incredulously at everyone just going about their business,

“Look at us, swimming and listening to music ...” he said, after Biden’s historic announcement.

He was right, it is both horrifying and comforting, our ability to push forward even in the bleakest of times. But that’s exactly what we have to do — come together, lock arms, and push forward — if we want to keep the darkest of days at bay.