Former Vice President Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention from Wilmington, Delaware (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Accepting the Democratic Presidential nomination, Joe Biden calls for Americans to unify for “hope and light and love — hope for our futures, light to see our way forward, and love for one another”.

Speaking from Delaware, Biden emphasized a way forward amid the Coronavirus pandemic, economic downturn, and social division while implicitly denouncing the approach and actions of Donald Trump and his allies.

It’s time for us, for We the People, to come together.

For make no mistake. United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege.

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Invoking the precedent of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal that brought the US out of Depression and through World War II, the former Vice President said, “This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment.”

The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long — too much anger, too much fear, too much division.

Here and now, I give you my word: If you entrust me with the Presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not the darkness.

He linked the call to the “perfect storm” of “four historic crises”: “The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the 60’s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change.”

Then he asked, “The question for us is simple: Are we ready?”

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“This is Our Moment. This is Our Mission”

Biden implicitly took apart Trump’s illusory populism, but turned this into the positive of an American recovery beyond party and faction.

Winning it for the generous among us, not the selfish. Winning it for the workers who keep this country going, not just the privileged few at the top. Winning it for those communities who have known the injustice of the “knee on the neck”. For all the young people who have known only an America of rising inequity and shrinking opportunity.

Driving home the pledge, he detailed the toll of the pandemic — more than 175,000 dead, more than 50 million claiming unemployment benefit, and small businesses at risk — to promote health care, safe education, and a national effort building on expertise.

Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to this nation. He failed to protect us. He failed to protect America. And, my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable.

As President, I will make you this promise: I will protect America. I will defend us from every attack. Seen. And unseen. Always. Without exception. Every time.

Biden concluded, “Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission.”