Every presidential election cycle we hear the same thing: This is going to be the “most important election in our lifetime.”
The candidates say it. Their handlers say it. Many in the media say it.
The election — no matter the context, the backdrop or the candidates — is the “most important” election we’ll see for as long as we live.
You know what? The 2020 election really and truly might be that election. It truly might tell us plenty about ourselves, how much we can tolerate in our political leaders and whether the 2016’s result was much of a fluke as many of us — such as me — believe it was.
Donald Trump’s re-election campaign essentially began the day after he was inaugurated. If not on the day itself!
He has been campaigning basically since the moment he stepped off the podium in front of the Capitol Building.
Why do I attach such significance to this election coming up? Because in my estimation Donald John Trump had no business winning the Republican Party nomination in 2016, let alone winning the election over a supremely more qualified opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Yes, Hillary Clinton had plenty of negatives. She might not have been the best-suited candidate to oppose Trump, but she at least knows how government works; Trump knows not a damn thing.
He has been lying and misrepresenting almost every aspect of his presidency, starting with the way he has characterized his election. Trump got elected by one of the narrowest margins possible; he lost the actual vote by nearly 3 million ballots but squeaked by with enough Electoral College votes to win the White House. Yes, he won it legally, but it was far from the historic landslide he has portrayed it.
The 2020 election well could be a referendum on a return to what the late Sen. John McCain used to refer to as “regular order.” Trump has upset that order at almost every level imaginable. I am one American who prefers that our president knows government, understands the Constitution and is able to forge relationships — if not friendships — with politicians with whom he has disagreements.
I believe the country can withstand four more years of Trump, but the price would be enormous.
The 2020 election can stem that huge cost. Therefore, this upcoming election could actually be the most important in our lifetime.