Where Does Harris-vs.-Trump Rank in America’s ‘Most Important Election’ Sweepstakes?

All year long, political Cassandras have been prophesying that November 5th could spell doomsday for American democracy. And with good reason. Given that a candidate falsely believes the 2020 election is fraudulent — and has cast doubt on the need for absolute guarantees of the Constitution — the outcome could be dire, even catastrophic.

Many believe that this is the most important choice of their life. But only How is it pivotal compared to all 59 previous White House races? By my own personal number, it ranks third.

Here are my top 14, in reverse order, along with my reasoning behind each selection. Some of these races have only proven “pivotal” with the benefit of hindsight. Other elections — like Tuesday’s — seemed monumental at the moment.

14. JFK VS. NIXON (1960)

Vice President Richard Nixon represented the institution. Senator John Kennedy, though a son of privilege, was the face of the future: a war hero, the second Catholic named his party’s nominee and, at 43, the youngest man ever. elected president. Many believed that his tanned and photogenic presence in the first televised presidential debatein contrast to Nixon’s face (which looked haggard, partly because of his reported refusal of wearing makeup under harsh TV lights—and a recent hospitalization), helped turn the tide in JFK’s favor. Whatever the case, that primary broadcast would set the stage for every televised debate — and national election — since.

When the ballots were tabulated, the race was so close that many believed Nixon should have challenged the results. (Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, in fact, is alleged to have helped deliver a number of dubious votes.) Nixon, however, unwilling to send the country into political chaos, chose to drop out.

13. HAYES VS. TILDEN (1876)

The showdown had everything we’ve come to expect in nightmare election scenarios: intimidation at the polling station, outright fraud, systemic threats to potential voters in black communities, parallel sets of improper electoral votes sent to be ratified. — and two nominees claiming to have won the thing. The proceedings dragged on into March 1877, before Rutherford B. Hayes was finally declared the winner, passing the Electoral College by a single vote, in a ruling issued by an election commission established by Congress. Writer Jim Windolf, in the book Vanity Fair’s Presidential Profiles, would call it “the most controversial and hotly contested presidential election in US history (with the possible exception of George W. Bush cons Al Gore).” Of course, this statement was made in 2010, 11 years before the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol Building.

12. REAGAN VS. CARTER (1980)

Leave aside the many accomplishments of President Ronald Reagan, who, along with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev, had a no small hand in the eventual dissolution of the Soviet bloc and the USSR. Even more significant on the domestic front was how the actor-turned-governor of California represented a sea change in the Republican Party. A former Democrat, Reagan inherited the mantle of right-wing conservatism, which, as a historian Todd Brewster notes, “he was considered by many to have been defeated in 1964 with the defeat of presidential aspirant Barry Goldwater.” Buoyed by Reagan’s leadership, the GOP would begin its slow but increasingly firm alliance with the so-called Christian Right and various conservative organizations, eventually aligning itself with the Tea Party and, in the Trump years, the movement MAGA. Reagan’s ascension to the White House set all this in motion.

11. NIXON VS. McGOVERN (1972)

Richard Nixon’s advances in the Middle East, Russia, and China were among the most transformative foreign policy changes in US history. He won his second term as a defender of the status quo values ​​of what he called the Silent Majority. Before long, he would become the enemy of a young and demonstrative new left, one that was fueled by cultural change, engaged in political action, and enraged by US involvement in the Vietnam War. But none of these problems explain why his re-election in 1972 proved so crucial.

Specifically: Nixon’s team, trying to ensure the president won four more years in office, engaged in covert covert operations in what became known as the Watergate scandal. By the time Nixon began his second term, it had already been revealed that a political “dirty tricks” unit, working with campaign staff members, had illegally targeted political opponents, even attempting—five months before the election—to install surveillance devices in Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee. Top Nixon aides then conspired to cover up their involvement in or knowledge of these schemes. Dozens of people would be indicted or would plead guilty for, Watergate Crimes. Before Congress could begin impeachment hearings, the president himself would resign in disgrace. The main lessons of the Watergate scandal were twofold. The Constitution’s safeguards—against executive overreach and obstruction of justice—had stood firm. And as Chief Justice Warren Burger stated in his landmark Supreme Court opinion, no man, not even the President, is “above the law.”

10. OBAMA VS. McCAIN (2008)

One term senator Barack Obama defeated Arizona Sen. John McCain, a decorated combat veteran and former prisoner of war. Obama’s victory was not only decisive – 365 electoral votes against 173 – but unprecedented: for the first time, the highest office in the country will be held by a black man. As Obama said in his opening line victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonder if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still question the strength of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

9. JOHNSON VS. GOLDWATER (1964)

In November after John Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson would win in a landslide. And he was determined to uphold his predecessor’s vow to respond to the clarion calls of the civil rights movement. Working with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, Johnson was able to push for the passage of two landmark bills: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—the latter, said the president, was “as huge as any victory won on any battlefield.” By eradicating racial barriers one by one, the twin initiatives forever changed the electoral landscape at the local, state and federal levels.

8. FDR VS. HOOVER (1932)

Franklin Roosevelt’s unparalleled four-term presidency began during the Great Depression and ended as the Allies were on the verge of winning World War II. Taking over from Herbert Hoover, a president stuck in the nation’s fiscal freefall after the stock market the accident of 1929FDR would take command during a tumultuous period in which he helped save America from economic implosion, introduced Social Security, and, working with other world leaders, helped free much of Europe and Asia from Nazi rule and the Axis powers. The original election of 1932 would prove to have global repercussions that resonate to this day.

7. BUSH VS. poke (2000)

Some still claim the election was a silent coup, a sham. Late on the evening of November 7, 2000, the race was too close to call – and all because of suspicions about the ballots in the state of Florida, where he happened to be the governor. Jeb Bush, brother of GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush. After weeks of “hanging tassels” and “butterfly ballots,” stories and finger-pointing—many of those fingers pointed at Florida’s overwhelmed secretary of state, Katherine Harris— the whole issue degenerated into chaos. Despite vote counts that were clearly in Gore’s favor, countless bureaucratic and judicial ballot-counting decisions continued to go in Bush’s favor — possibly because Florida police and officials got the thumbs up on the ladder. In a short time, both sides have lawyered up, launching a monumental lawsuit, Bush v. Gore. Retaken by the Supreme Court, the case was decided by a slim 5-4 margin, with — unsurprisingly — Bush coming out on top. Many cried foul: the deck had looked stacked from the start. And yet, from his podium at a joint session of Congress, Vice President Al Gore, the most unlikely referee of all, oversaw the certification Bush’s victory— two months after election day.