Look at Biden and Trump, and the true picture emerges: There’s no comparison.

The peril of a debate performance, amplified by broadcast cycles with more airtime than news to fill it, is its tendency to erase from mind the years of context that voters require.

In fact, nothing about the words exchanged at last week’s presidential debate changes the candidates' records as public servants or their levels of personal character and integrity.

On one side, we have a convicted felon who has lied and cheated his way through business, elections, marriage and even golf. He promotes policies that favor the rich over the middle class and poor. He installed a federal judiciary that denied women reproductive health rights, decimated environmental and corporate antifraud protections, and has gone out of its way to obstruct the prosecution of Trump's misdeeds. By the way he also tried to overthrow the government. We know our Mar-a-Lago neighbor well: Donald Trump is bad people.

More on the debate: Florida voters need clear answers, not theatrics, from the Trump-Biden debate

On the other side, we have Joe Biden, a good man with decades of government leadership and collaborative, nuts-and-bolts work on the issues, who continues to build upon the towering achievements of a career devoted to democracy and public wellbeing. To name a few:

Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, wrestled into being over strenuous partisan opposition, helped turn around an economy brought low by the pandemic. The Labor Department estimates 15 million jobs have been created on Biden's watch. More jobs are being created month after month, with unemployment at remarkable lows, benefiting people at all income levels. Technology and manufacturing jobs are returning to our shores. And the administration continues to fight for the working classes with its support for day care and college loan relief for those who need it most.

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By contrast, Trump's and the Republican Party's contribution to the economy was a massive tax break for those who least needed it, needlessly aggravating the deficit while emasculating the IRS to make it much more difficult to collect from the wealthy what taxes they do owe.

Those of us who recognize the urgent threat of climate change see a stark contrast between Biden's efforts to accelerate the shift to alternative sources of energy, and Trump's dismissal of a scientific consensus that cries out for action. That, much as Trump dismissed vaccines during the pandemic while promoting fanciful panaceas, while Biden kept the adults in the room in charge; the results were plain to see.

Speaking of public health, let's not forget, though also not mentioned in the debate, that millions of Americans have Biden to thank for their health insurance, for his significant contribution to pushing the Affordable Care Act into existence.

At every turn in the debate, even when immigration wasn't the topic at hand, Trump conjured images of invading hordes of terrorists, blaming the onslaught on Biden. Contrast that with Biden's unceasing efforts to seek a comprehensive, bipartisan solution. Let's not forget: A solution was at hand, with both parties in agreement, until Trump yanked the mat out from underneath it to advance his campaign, sustaining the suffering of so many individuals on both sides of the border.

Contrast Biden's bipartisan approach to the many GOP-led Congressional hearings that have turned from legitimate policy inquiries into kangaroo courts. Contrast Biden's bipartisan approach to Trump's loading the Supreme Court and others below it with partisans; to Trump's pledge to once again use the Justice Department to dish out vengeance on political foes. Just wait until he's free to act with even more impunity, confident in the Supreme Court's buttressing last week of his ability to claim immunity from prosecution as president.

We believe those calling for Joe Biden’s replacement on the Democratic ticket are too caught up in the moment. We look forward to great things from his second term. But his doubters are politically unrealistic in a way that threatens to give Donald Trump a new term, one even more disastrous than his last.

All efforts now need to be on building voter participation among all who stand to benefit from Biden's work, and not killing off enthusiasm through internecine squabbles that can’t possibly lead to a better result than Biden gives the nation every day.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Democrats: Stop fighting about Biden's debate performance