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September 15, 2020 11:07 AM UTC

The Most Important Election Ever!

  • 48 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

The 2020 election is the most important election ever. We know this to be true, because everybody says so.

Of course, “everybody” said the same thing in 2018, and 2016, and 2014…

We need to get to the bottom of this, so click after the jump to cast your vote.


What is the Most Important Election of Your Lifetime?
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48 thoughts on “The Most Important Election Ever!”

    1. I think it goes back further than that. I think the most important election of my lifetime was 1980. Far, far, far (far) too young to vote then, but that was the beginning of the end of things getting better. The rejection of the social compact and the elevation of the Homo-economicus, Devil take the hindmost politics and business.

      Every election since then has just been moving the deck chairs around on the good ship Titanic. If Clinton had won in 2016 it would just have delayed the mess somewhat until this year when another equally bad Republican would have gotten a shot after four years of them sabotaging her and then blaming Democrats for the grid lock they created.

      Maybe things would have been a bit better if Gore had won in 2000.. but I suspect he would not have been able to reverse the underlying economic/political trends. Avoiding the endless war in Iraq would have been positive both there and here, but would it have changed the rise of the Militia/conspiracy fringe? That stuff was already starting to grow in the 1990s.

      1. I'd go back to whatever election gave Karl Rove his foothold in division politics.  Today's party is in large part the manifestation of the seeds he planted. 

        1. You'd have to send the T-800 back several decades.

          Rove's initial job in Texas was in 1977 as a legislative aide for Fred Agnich, a Texas Republican state representative from Dallas.[24] Later that same year, Rove got a job as executive director of the Fund for Limited Government, a political action committee (PAC) in Houston headed by James A. Baker, III, a Houston lawyer (later President George H. W. Bush's Secretary of State). The PAC eventually became the genesis of the Bush-for-President campaign of 1979–1980.

          1. Those roots go deep.

            Funny story about Karl. I was in the Krispy Kreme shop in DuPont Circle early one morning and it happened that Karl and I were the only two at the counter.  He looked at me and said he thought he knew me; I assured him he didn't.  He asked where I was from and I told him it was a little town in eastern Colorado he'd never heard of.  He asked again so I said "Wray".  He thought for a second and said, "isn't that just north of Cheyenne Wells?  He paid for my donut and we parted. 

          1. I’d forgotten that one, too. Yes. Karma. According to that article KR was a ‘non-believer’. Who’d have thunk? What is it about these turfblossoms and the evangelicals?

            Speaking of same-sex marriage, did Musty ever concede to Betsy? 

            1. I don’t think so, Michael. She didn’t even attend her own post-election party (wake?). The way I heard it, she slunk into D.C. in the dark of night, cleaned out her office, and vanished with nary a word to anyone.

        3. "manifestation of the seeds he planted. "

          Small world. I gave the same quote to a Fox News reporter outside Macky Auditorium on the night that Howard Dean debated Karl Rove; Feb. 15, 2010.

          It was like watching a WWE match …. all of the outrage and remarks seemed scripted.

          My most important election was 1972. The first year that 18-year-olds were given the right to vote (for McGovern) along with the right to die in war.

          No beer, though.

           

      2. That would be Arthur Laffer and his VooDoo economic theory.  But 1980 was a tidal wave election due to (I believe) Jimmy Carter's ineffective handling of the economy.  Not much we could have done to stop that result.

        1. Does it have to be close to be the most important? Because if you’re using that metric then it is clearly 2000, which was a hell of a lot closer than 2016. Also the ‘mishandling’ was a deliberate plan to break inflation. Which worked and was a right thing to do. It just took until after 1982. I’m not sure there was any way to actually break inflation without economic pain.

          What could have been different, might have been different, was if Carter did a Bill Ritter. Looked at the situation and stepped aside for someone who was more popular instead of running for a second term. No guarantee that it would have worked, but unless Carter got some amazingly impossible hostage rescue going there was no way he was going to win.

          1. Good points about the 2000 election.  That probably was pivotal, but Gore was correct to not contest it further once SCOTUS made that disgraceful ruling.

            FYI — Inflation during Carter's adminstration was already out of control by the time Paul Volker was appointed Fed Chair and took the bloody, but needed steps to rein it in.  But I'll never forget the period of Stagflation and 16% mortgage interest rates.  The multiple Middle East oil crises were fundamentally to blame for much of the economic woes of that decade.  I recall spending about 50 cents to fill the tank of my motorcycle around 1970, then needing $3 later that decade.

            1. I don’t remember the history, but what I was taught in collage was that quite a few Democrats were telling Carter he should get Volker to back off for a while. Carter stood firm instead.

              1. Everyone thought back then that debt financing a war (Viet Nam) caused inflation.
                And Fed Chairs Bill Miller and Paul Volker convinced Carter the math was sound – let interest rates rise, break inflation, then get back to normal.

                It wasn't until Bush II that we learned the new math and the answer was really blame Ds, vote R, cut taxes,  blow up the deficit , blame Ds, vote R, ,,, repeat  …

          2. The 2000 election was the most important because (1) it was possible for the SCOTUS to intervene, and (2) SCOTUS DID intervene.

            That intervention was the first indicator that the Right-Wing was (1) able to take over the Court, and (2) that the Right-Wing was willing to break social norms in order to gain power.

            A Democratic President would not have created the Iraq war, so the Middle East would not have suffered THAT catastrophe.

            A Democratic President would have made reasonable Judicial system appointments.

      3. "militia/conspiracy fringe…..that stuff was already beginning to grow in the 1990s."

        Not quite, dude. Start with the founding of the John Birch Society in December, 1961. Then go way back in the time machine to the beginnings of the KKK in December, 1865 and its revival in 1915. Then check out Father Coughlin in the 1930s. Modern day, wanna be, gun boys like Proud Boys and Oathkeepers aren't a new concept.

        1. Most of you may well know this, but check out the new book, 'How the South Won the Civil War' by the Harvard PhD (and prof. of History at Boston College) Heather Cox Richardson. 

          The History topics in her studies and career in History have been Republican Party History from 1850 to the 2000s (and the 'flip' of the party after Reconstruction); Civil War; Western US development as Southern idealogy pervades it; and the relation of 19th C. Native American history in the West to that.

          She has been writing for a year, almost daily (late at night) 'Letters from an American', and she also has 2 good interviews with Bill Moyers from July.  https://billmoyers.com/story/bill-moyers-and-heather-cox-richards-on-her-daily-letters/.

          She makes a comment in one of the 2 interviews that she is deliberately being understated and reserved in her letters, which I am happy about; just the facts, which are terrifying enough.

          And the second interview, about her book mentioned above  https://billmoyers.com/story/bill-talks-with-heather-cox-richardson-about-how-the-south-won-the-civil-war/

          And additionally, I almost forgot about the several or many YouTube talks by Timothy Snyder from Yale, author of the tiny book in March 2017, 'On Tyranny'.  

           

    2. 2016 was significant, but wishing it came out differently is also problematic.

      I don't really believe in the catastrophe argument, i.e. that things have to go to hell before they could get better. Nevertheless, it is probably a good thing that Hillary Clinton failed, as a Trumpian Republican Party was sure to milk Hillary animosity to gain ground in 2018 and possibly 2020.

      Trump has been a disaster, but continuing the Neo-Liberal slow burn under a moderate Democrat would also have been a disaster. The Trump regime has destroyed both the Republican Party and the neo-Liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

  2. 2022 mid-term

    If it's Trump – the Senate will be everything left – judges, impeachment, etc

    If it's Biden/Harris – Senate will be everything left – any chance at legislating, judges, etc. And House will be the only hope.

    If it's Pence – the Senate will be everything left .
     

  3. To coin a phrase … Constant voting is the price of liberty. EVERY vote counts, every election counts. 

    Didn't the Founding Fathers declare "all votes are created equal, endowed by their Creator with unalienable importance" ??

    1. I’m seeing some troubling signs on Facebook this past week in my friends and family I know well who are in the Trump camp. Their rhetoric is up a few notches and the meme/post sharing with the violent undertones are disturbing.  Not sure where this leads us but Mark Hillman’s guest editorial in this week’s Wray Gazette leaves us with the parting thought that freedom isn’t free and sometimes people have to die to remain free. I’m not sure if he’s taking about our freedom riders out East or our military across the globe. It was an unique, literary close to such an editorial. 

        1. For anyone disheartened by the extremists’ violent rhetoric, I heartily recommend hooking up with your local Democratic or progressive activist organization (i.e. MoveOn, Indivisible, Moral Majority, Voto Latino, etc), and start talking with ordinary Americans. You will find that Anne Frank was right- most people are basically good. (Yes, I know that Anne died in Bergen-Belsen camp, but we are still quoting her 75 years later, so we  learned something from her life).

          We had our last Tuesday Black Lives Matter standing protest tonight at Jewell/ Alameda intersection. Hundreds of cars honked and cheered us; we got a few screams of “All Lives Matter”,  or  thumbs down, or attempts to persuade us that we were affiliated with a terrorist organization, but nothing really vicious).

          That human contact, whether door to door if you can risk it, or on the phone, or standing at an intersection, will restore your faith and hope in your fellow Americans and in small d democracy.

          Next up – getting out the vote.

          1. It is easy to become discouraged when one is bomdarded with bullshit on a daily basis.

            I spend significant time cheerleading for my family to try to keep up their spirits. My own weariness of the isolation, my repeatedly juiced up outrage at the sorry state of our body politic, my moral revulsion everytime I see or hear the Trumps; none of that makes it any easier, but I remain optimistic.

            We, the US, have a built-in advantage over countries like Belarus, Turkey, Russia, and others that have fallen prey to a dictator…we have no history of it. Democracy is all we have known as a nation. I don't think the Orange Destruction is going to succeed. 

            I believe he will lose the election …on election day.

          1. I was alarmed when I read "George Washington said that Americans were “a new race,” unlike any other." and thought that this was going to be an epic racist rant.

            But it's actually a lot of words that say nothing at all. One could read it as advocating for tolerance, compromise, unity and understanding; not the usual 'water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants' spiel.

             

            But in Hillman's case it probably matters more in how loudly the words are said while brandishing an AR-15.

            That must be why he saw fit to publish the same rant in three pubs on the same day. 

            1. I agree that it could have been read as a call to unity, etc.  But I can assure you that every fire-breathing MAGA in my local newspaper’s readership came to a different conclusion. 

              1. He could have published 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and the firebreathers' bias and predisposition would have dominated their appreciation of fine poetry.

                What would happen if a response to the op-ed highlighted all of the centrist points he made.

                property rights? yes, protect them from big oil too.

                Where in the world did the GW quote come from?

                He makes great points for getting immigration reform done, taking down Confederate statues and voting rights and guarding those rights relentlessly.

                And how many of those rights have already been defended by blood or even life.

                John Lewis should be Hillman's hero.

                  1. I’d like to give Mark the benefit of the doubt and conclude he’s trying to dance on the head of a pin, a line drawn somewhere between the fire breathers and his opportunity to be a statesman on how we rebuild from this chaos. Given his past, perpetual rants on Democrats I have my doubts that was his intent but I’m open to him convincing me otherwise.  

                    I’d offer up an alternative quote for him:

                    “No, Americn is not just about property; America is about protecting the equality of opportunity.”
                    ~Abraham Lincoln

                    Imagine if Lincoln had survived and Andrew Johnson never became POTUS just how different things might be. There has been a lot of blood shed, lives lost, generations of black Americans enslaved to poverty because of one bullet.

                    1. I've spent some time trying to find something about his legislative record and can't find anything. I probably need to take the time to review his writings but I would want to do it chronologically to see if he really does have an inner centrist trying to emerge.

                      Reading his last post in full left no doubt about it for me. But that's just one data point.

                      It would be fun to call him out/troll him for it.

                    2. I recall him being (at the time) more in the mold of Gov. Bill Owens.  He did co-sponsor our first piece of hemp-related-efforts, a resolution supporting the legalization of hemp, in 2010, pre-Amendment 64, with Democrat Wes McKinley.  He eventually married and moved back to his horse ranch in Burlington.  His rantings in the Wray Gazette (all available on his website) are (paraphrased) Democrats = bad, destroying our way of life; Republicans = good (if only we could find a way to get back in power).  

                      Now that we’ve seen some leadership from Ryan Call and Cole Wist on the Ttump clusterf*, perhaps he’ll have the guts to speak some truth about the current state of the party.  

      3. Yes.  My canary in the covid-mine is going off the rails.

        Their rhetoric is up a few notches and the meme/post sharing with the violent undertones are disturbing.

        Lot's of antifa forest fire arsonists to go along with the child molester memes.

        If I didn't know she is a real person, I'd think she was a Russian bot.

        I think they dander they are on the losing end and are trying to make up for it  with volume and exaggeration.

        1. One of the provocateurs I commented about previously has posted a video in which he asks a fire official about whether a fire could have been caused by Antifa throwing flammables from the road. So he’s stoking that rumor intentionally.
           

           

  5. I think I'd have to choose 1994. That was the election that allowed Newt Gingrich to take over the House with his pledge of a "permanent Republican majority" and really destroy the collegiality that had previously been the rule. As an example, when Biden won his Senate seat in '72, and then his family was in that terrible accident at Christmas, he seriously considered not taking the seat. Congressmen from both sides of the aisle encouraged him to go ahead and several of their wives offered to look after his children so he could serve. You'd never see that now.

  7. My first vote for president was for JFK in 1960 (when voting eligibility age was 21).  There have been pivotal points since then, 1980,eg., but there has never been a vote that would determine the survival of our system of government before now. Try to imagine, if you haven't already, what would be left after another four years of trump and barr, not to mention the republican party.  2020 is without a doubt the most important election in my lifetime. 

    1. I agree with CDW.  In 2016, we elected a lying narcisist over a good woman, even though a fairly strong plurality of us rejected incipient fascism.  It can be argued that Trump’s lies and Comey’s scheming led to disaster.

      But we have had four years of fascism, stupidity, and pull-my-finger vulgarity that have made us the laughing stock of the world.  If we willingly choose four more years of fascism, it will mean that the American dream as we have known it is dead.

      It is a time for all good people to stand together behind a decent and honest man, Joe Biden, and a stirring symbol of hope and progress, Kamala Harris.

      It is a Manichean election, pitting good against evil.  There are no valid third ways.

      The twilight of indecision is over.

      It is the morning of either or.

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