Is It Truly “The Most Consequential” Election “Of Our Lifetimes?”

Many claim this, but is the reality holding up against the statement?

I believe the first Presidential election I was cognizant of was 1988, which was a rout-ish (HW over Dukakis). By 1992, when I was 11–12, I actually would read news articles about Clinton vs. Bush. So let’s say I’ve been kinda following Presidential electoral politics for 32 or so years. Literally every election is framed as “the most consequential of our lifetime,” even Obama vs. Romney, which honestly felt like the most boring election of all-time. We constantly say that. You hear it all the time in this newfound 2024 campaign after Biden dropped out.

There is an obvious argument for why it might be true this time, in that you have a woman going against a man, and you have a man that says some dangerous stuff on stages, even if his followers then tell you “It’s all a joke, just vote for him on taxes.” Since Roe was flipped in 2022 or so, you can see this election as a referendum on reproductive rights. But, the problem therein becomes: How much do people care about that vs. the price of their hatch chiles? Indeed.

Basically every other argument is against the idea of “most consequential election ever.” We will probably get this thing called by Saturday, November 9th…