The Biggest Election in Four Years

By Michael Baker

With both major parties hosting their conventions, I’ve been hearing a lot of complete crap the past couple weeks. From “Romney let some woman die of cancer” to “Obama wants to keep welfare recipients out of the workforce.” And it shows no sign of stopping.

But one piece of total nonsense that both sides want us to buy into is that this is “the election of a lifetime.” I think I heard this from at least half a dozen speakers at the RNC, and I’ve already heard it twice from the Dem’s. The explanation tends to be something equally hollow, like “the American Dream is at stake” or “more than any other election, this will define the course that our country takes.” Hogwash.

Not only is this not the biggest or most important election of my lifetime, it’s not even the most important of the 2000’s. How on Earth is 2012 a more significant election than 2008? Sure, our economy is bad, but in 2008 it was worse. Sure, there’s turmoil in the Middle East, but in 2008 we were in the midst of two Middle East conflicts that appeared to have no realistic end in sight. Sure, gas prices are high, but they haven’t skyrocketed at the rate they did leading up to the 2008 election. And sure, the country seems stuck in a partisan deadlock, but that’s been the case since the mid-90’s.

This might sound like an endorsement of Obama, as I’m suggesting that things are not as severe now as they were four years ago. While I do think that our situation as a nation is less dire, I’m not pointing that out to suggest that Big O is the right choice. As this week will show us, he’s just as full of crap and willing to bend the truth as his rival.

All that I mean to point out is that it seems like every candidate is excited to tell us how this is the most important election of our lives. It’s not; it’s the most important of theirs. Until the next one, anyway.