This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Is This the Most Important Election of our Lifetime?

Can you ever really tell if this is going to be the most important election of our lives?

I was thinking about that question this morning and I have to argue that it is irrelevant.  Please hear me out.  This will be the fourth presidential election I am voting in and, while I don’t recall if there was insanity when Bush fought Gore in a bloody battle to the White House, I certainly don’t remember that being the most important election of my lifetime. Then again, I was just nineteen at the time.

But four years later when John Kerry dueled the incumbent for the crown I was told that that was one of the most important elections of my lifetime.  A year-a-and-half into a controversial war, the election was all about war and terrorism.  Who would keep us safer?

Bush held on and dealt with the lame duck presidency that plagues a second term president especially with a majority of the opposing party leading in the Senate and the House.  The market collapsed, Afghanistan erupted but we were well on our way to leaving Iraq.  Unemployment skyrocketed as houses and sedans fought to see which one was more expensive.

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That’s why I was told the 2008 election was the most important of our lifetime.  It was Obama, a half-black, half-white Chicago senator with a name close to Osama versus the hawk of the senate since 1987 and Vietnam war hero, John McCain.  The nation's future was in the balance and Obama intended to change Washington.  He won.

Now, we’re in 2012 and I'm told that this is truly the most important election of our lifetime.  The economy is stagnant and no one knows which way it’s going to go, the Middle East is erupting and the controversial Obamacare hangs by a thread if Obama’s opponent reaches the coveted 270 electoral votes needed on November 6th.

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It’s strange how just 8 years ago the election was fraught with terrorism and war and trying to protect our safety and security while this one barely hints at it. Is this really the most important election of our lifetime?  Or is that just a marketing ploy to get you to tune in to cable news and fight harder for your candidate of choice?  For my grandmother, the reelections of Roosevelt may be more important than whether one of these two guys win the day or maybe Nixon’s election in 1968 in the midst of Vietnam, civil rights, and assassinations were viewed, at the time, as more important than an Obama v. Romney title card.

Shouldn’t we let history make the decision of the real importance of this election and recognize that elections in general, regardless of the runners, hold value in our country and way of life?  Considering we are finding ourselves at the throats of friends and family members fighting for our important candidate even when it seems that many of us are placing our votes on one candidate because we simply don’t want the other to win, does that make it actually important?

Agree to disagree.  Elections come and go but alienating friends or family based on their political choices will sting longer after the political storm calms in an election that may historically be not that important at all.  We ask for civility in our political leaders so let’s continue to show it amongst the people we encounter throughout the day on Facebook, to our families and to our friends.  Important or not, just vote because it’s our democratic right.

Finally, I think the Bush versus Gore election has been the most important of my lifetime thus far because that paved the way to the road I find my adult life on now.  The funny thing is, it didn’t seem that important at the time.

 

Listen to me discuss entertainment, politics and life my weekly podcast The Real BS Podcast with Ben and Steve and check out my latest novel My Funny Old Soul Mate available on amazon.com, bn.com, Kindle and more!

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Farmington-Farmington Hills