I had begun casually learning more about politics in the previous two years of middle school and had really gotten more invested in it and related fields during 2020/quarantine, but Jan. 6 was the first time I was watching something live that I knew was history being written. It was the first time I saw live something that would shift the paradigm of American government and norms of Western Liberal Democracies forever. I remember it the way the people view pre/post 9/11 in retrospect.
We cannot forget what transpired that day. A president for the first time ever did not concede their loss in an election, overturning the bedrock of our democratic norms in ways we won't fully see until this November and beyond. That president sent a violent mob of his supporters to the U.S. Capitol based on the lie of his victory to attempt to overturn with force that election which he lost. For the first time since the War of 1812, the Capitol was breached, and multiple lives were lost, all to appease a man humiliated by a loss that showed that he wasn’t indestructible.
Shifting it back to the present, that man is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president. It is of existential importance that he is defeated, lest our democratic traditions be in jeopardy even more. Not voting for Joe Biden in this election is to stand by as our democracy is threatened again. That makes this maybe the easiest choice in history regarding who to vote for, because the ballot for president is now a vote for or against the safety of our democracy.
Vote for democracy, therefore Biden, and the party that doesn't enable the man trying to disassemble our democracy. Vote blue.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
