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“Most every campaign cycle, it seems, presidential candidates and political pundits claim this election is the most important one ever. It’s become something of a cliché in American politics. This time, however, they just might be correct.” - from 2012

  • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io
    172·
    1 month ago

    I think I follow US politics pretty closely for the most part. Obviously every presidential election is important. However, there have been a few that have been critically so in my lifetime. I’ll leave it up to you to determine which ones were most important to you.

    • 1992 was the first election post Cold War. It was also a referendum on how Bush handled the first Iraq war, and how he increased taxes after saying he wouldn’t. It was the first time in a while that we had a viable 3rd party candidate. It was also a watershed moment for NAFTA which would have unlikely been passed under a republican president. Gay rights also made huge strides due to this election.

    • 1996 saw the rise of the religious right, and laid the foundation for the political theater that we experience today.

    • 2000 was a referendum on how important the climate was to the average American. I’m sad to say that the fossils won that one. To me this was one of the most important races of our lifetimes.

    • 2004 was a referendum on the handling of the second Iraq War and the continuation of torture as an interrogation device. This one to me is the one where we started to lose a lot of our standing and respect around the world .

    • 2008 was critical in that we finally got some semblance of a national healthcare plan

    • 2012 was a referendum on that Healthcare plan. This one is yet another critical juncture in the vision for America. The loss here made the right rabid. It also didn’t help that the 24 hour news cycle was no longer hamstrung to report the, you know, actual news.

    • 2016 was a referendum on electing a black man to the highest office twice. It was also about healthcare, but most importantly it was when the right finally got war fatigue while the left got globalization fatigue. It was important in that the US started to return back to its isolationist roots.

    • 2020 was a referendum on democracy. We hadn’t experienced such a vital threat to democracy since the era when the atomic bomb gave us near total control over the world. If trump had won, I fear we would ceased to function as a democracy at the national level.

    • And now onto 2024 - yet another referendum on democracy, but with the added twist that everyone is spurned by high inflation. The economy simply isn’t working for about 40% of the population. In any other normal year, this would be a shoo in for the change candidate, unfortunately for us that change candidate is a fascist dictator.

    So, is 2024 the most important election of our lifetimes? Well, I suppose that depends on whether you value living in a democracy. For me, that is a resounding yes.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      1 month ago

      2000 was a referendum on how important the climate was to the average American. I’m sad to say that the fossils won that one. To me this was one of the most important races of our lifetimes.

      2000 was the first Republican coup, and a successful one.

    • capital_sniff@lemmy.world
      10·
      1 month ago

      I think when SCOTUS and Florida gave the presidency to Bush Jr. was the major attack on the system of democracy that we practice. Gore v Bush Jr. taught the conservatives how to harness the dark side of the law. Now they engaged in their lawfare stage of fascism.

    • sub_ubi@lemmy.mlOP
      39·
      1 month ago

      nice attempt to attach a storyline to being a prisoner-of-the-moment.

      2012 which you rank 4th highest, where one candidate had formerly supported & implemented a version of the “national healthcare plan” and the other implemented it with conservative support. It was already law, and it wasn’t going away.

      Comapre anything on your list to '36 where capitalism itself was at stake, or '80 and the solidification of neoliberalism.

  • anticolonialist@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1125·
    1 month ago

    I’ve been able to vote since Reagan, every election since has always been the most important election of our lifetime and it’s always been from the direct result of the people claiming its the important election of our lifetime. Democrats will always have a boogeyman to point fingers at that they’re coming to take away your rights. And Republicans will always have a boogeyman to point fingers at that they’re coming to take their rights. They collectively are coming to take away our rights and they have us fighting their battles to keep them in power so they can continue taking away our rights.

    • ski11erboi@lemm.ee
      312·
      1 month ago

      Sure but I don’t think we’ve ever had a candidate with so many former hand picked aids warn us about the end of democracy if he’s reelected.

      • anticolonialist@lemmy.worldEnglish
        824·
        1 month ago

        Midterms are going to be the most important election of our lifetime, 2028 is going to be the most important election of our lifetime. Democrats will forever offer a boogeyman to scare you into keeping them in power.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          31·
          1 month ago

          I don’t know if we should be assuming those elections will even happen. If Trump wins, then I guess we won’t need to worry about “important elections” ever again. Or any elections for that matter.

    • bostonbananarama@lemmy.world
      184·
      1 month ago

      Have Dems taken your rights to anything away? They’ve expanded rights for same sex couples and healthcare. Under Republicans my rights constantly get reduced. Abortion is the most recent example.

      Also, every election is important because the shitty people who want to screw everyone over never take an election cycle off. Sorry if showing up once every two years is too much to ask.

      • EmpireInDecay@lemmy.mlEnglish
        912·
        1 month ago

        Once SCOTUS overturns Obergefell our marriages will become the purview of the states again. Interracial marriages will become purview of the states. If a single court clerk does not want to issue a same sex or interracial marriage because it goes against their beliefs, the Respect for Marriage Act allows them to do so. Your loss of women’s reproductive rights was made possible by Democrats promising for 50 years to do something about it and then doing nothing about it. Three of those conservatives SCOTUS justices that removed those rights were put in place by Democrats. Democrats have done nothing but betray the working class for decades.

        • sub_ubi@lemmy.mlOP
          410·
          1 month ago

          And it’s always “but but the supreme court!” every 4 years. Like we need uphold this far-right de-facto legislative branch of government, and not threaten to kill it like FDR.

          • John Richard@lemmy.world
            52·
            1 month ago

            The only people that give the Supreme Court any power are those that say it has power. The Supreme Court are not enforcers.

    • FiremanEdsRevenge@lemmy.world
      142·
      1 month ago

      Are you fucking dense? Are you willfully digging your head in your ass? Where the fuck have you been these last couple years? None of this shit is normal, and you smugly claim it’s not important. I guess project 2025 is nothing either, right?

    • sub_ubi@lemmy.mlOP
      713·
      1 month ago

      They’re downvoting because this time it’s the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER IN HISTORY, and it will remain so until 2028.