To my American friends

 Dear American friends,

Today is May 5th.  Your presidential election is six months from today.  I sit here in Canada very concerned about my good neighbours to the south.  Many of you are not pleased with the presumptive presidential candidates.  You are not happy with the choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  Some of you will express your displeasure by not bothering to vote.  Others will search for an alternative, a third candidate.  

Words can't express how important it is that you vote.  It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the most consequential election in American history.  Even if you don't like the Biden or Trump, you should vote.  Here's why.  This is not really an election between those two men.  On November 5, 2024, you will choose between democracy and autocracy.  Do you really not want to vote when democracy itself is on the ballot?  Make no mistake, if Donald Trump regains the presidency, the United States will no longer be a democracy.  Trump and his Republican cohorts do not believe in the rule of law.  They seek raw power, pure and simple.  

Do not forget that on January 6, 2021,  Trump's right-wing mob attacked the Capitol Building and attempted to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Biden fair and square.  Trump has never accepted his defeat. He will not accept any result in which he is not declared the winner.

Joe Biden may not be the perfect candidate, but he is a decent man.  Unlike Donald Trump, Biden believes in democracy.  Donald Trump does not.  So, even if you don't care much for Joe Biden, don't stand back and let Trump destroy American democracy.  He and his supporters are trying to destroy your faith in your democratic institutions.  If you don't believe democracy matters, try living in a totalitarian state.  

Don't say it can't happen in America.  Just study the history of Hitler's rise to power in a cultured country like Germany.  In November, the decision is not in my hands.  The decision is in the hands of you, the American voter.  On November 5, 2024, will you choose democracy or dictatorship?  Will an authoritarian state be your legacy to your children and to future generations?  What a tragedy for humanity if we have to go down that road again.

Sincerely,

- Joanne, a concerned Canadian