Voters must participate in the democratic process- Vote for Biden to protect democracy

Opinion letter published in the Houston Chronicle*: Voters will do well to remember that, in America, we live in a country where our form of government is a democracy. 

The electorate selects the representatives that perform the government functions. It is the electorate's right to periodically confirm or change those representatives. Interestingly, the electorate also has the right to change the form of government through the voting process.

I cannot believe that more than 20% of voters would knowingly vote to end our democracy and establish an authoritarian (IOW Trumpziism) system. 

Also, I know that voting is not always a binary choice. There is the third option of not voting. That third choice cannot be an option for anyone who wants to maintain our democracy. The only way to ensure the preservation of our democracy is to drown with our votes that 20% of the electorate who might support authoritarianism.

It is not an overstatement to say that our country faces an existential choice in the coming election. It is time for voters to get over petty grievances. The future of our system of government is at stake, as are the freedoms derived from such a government. We ignore that at our own peril.

Vote like your vote depends on it. It does.

If we vote to change our form of government, for example by voting in a "dictator ❗for a day," it is highly unlikely that our democratic form of government could ever be reinstated. The voting process to enable a change back to democracy would no longer exist. 

Vote Blue 2024 #VoteDemocrat

*From Bill Crawford, in Surfside Texas