It was refreshing to read Grantham Smith’s opinion, “Come November, vote for democracy,” in the Jan. 24 issue of the Fountain Hills Times Independent. We need more young peoples’ voices in the democracy debate.

Smith is correct that what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, was history in the making. And it’s true that what took place on and since that day shifted "the paradigm of American government and norms of Western Liberal Democracies."

However, back on Nov. 2, 2020, NPR produced a show titled "How to Lose an Election: A Brief History of the Presidential Concession Speech," informing the public that there's no legal or constitutional requirement that the loser in a presidential election has to concede. It's a simple courtesy that began in 1896.

The political climate surrounding the 2020 election is anything but clear-cut. COVID changed how voters voted for the first time in our history in that election, opening the process up to possible fraud. News of impropriety with Hunter Biden's laptop and foreign dealings was suppressed from the general public prior to the election. Would knowing that have made a difference?  Maybe.

I am personally tired of the continued implied narrative that if one votes for Donald Trump, it's a vote against democracy. Democracy encourages and allows debate on all sides. That is not the case with our current sitting president. He doesn't even debate.

If a voter supports Trump, that person is branded as a white supremacist, racist, communist and who knows what else. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for a different form of governance in our great United States, something U.S. citizens have never experienced. A vote for continued U.S. democracy in the 2024 election is a red vote. Vote red.     

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.