All year long, political Cassandras have been prophesying that November 5th could mean the end of the world for American democracy. And rightly so. Given that one candidate falsely calls the 2020 election fraudulent (and has called into question the need for some of the Constitution’s ironclad guarantees), the outcome could be serious, even catastrophic.

Many believe that this is the most important election of their lives. but only as How important is it compared to the previous 59 White House elections? By my personal count, it ranks third.

Here are my top 14, in reverse order, along with the reasoning behind each pick. Some of these careers have proven to be “fundamental” only in retrospect. Other elections, like Tuesday’s, have seemed monumental at this point.

14. JFK VS. nixon (1960)

Vice President Richard Nixon represented the establishment. Senator John Kennedy, although a son of privilege, was the face of the future: a war hero, the second Catholic to be named his party’s candidate and, at 43, the youngest man to be elected. president-elect. Many believed that his photogenic, tanned presence in the First televised presidential debatein contrast to Nixon’s face (which appeared haggard, in part due to his reported rejection wearing makeup under the bright lights of television (and a recent hospital stay) helped turn the electoral tide in JFK’s favor. Whatever the case, that inaugural broadcast would lay the media-infused foundation for every televised debate (and national election) since.

When the votes were counted, the race was so close that many believed Nixon should have challenged the results. (Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, in fact, would be accused of helping secure a series of dubiously obtained votes.) However, Nixon, not wanting to send the country into political chaos, decided to resign.

13. HAYES VS. TILDEN (1876)

The showdown had everything we expected in nightmare election scenarios: intimidation at polling places, outright fraud, systemic threats to potential voters in black communities, parallel sets of mismatched electoral votes sent for ratification. —and two nominees claiming they had won the award. The proceedings continued until March 1877, before Rutherford B. Hayes was finally declared the winner, winning a single Electoral College vote, in a ruling issued by an electoral commission created by Congress. Writer Jim Windolf, in the book Vanity Fair presidential profiles, I would call it “the most controversial and close presidential election in American history (with the possible exception of George W. Bush versus Al-Gore).” It is true that that statement was made in 2010, 11 years before the 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol.

12. REAGAN VS. CARTER (1980)

One must leave aside the numerous achievements of President Ronald Reagan, who, along with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev, played a not insignificant role in the eventual dissolution of the Soviet bloc and the USSR. Even more significant on the home front was how the actor-turned-California governor represented a sea change in the Republican Party. Reagan, a former Democrat, had inherited the mantle of right-wing conservatism that, as the historian says Todd Brewster points out, “many considered him defeated in 1964 with the defeat of presidential hopeful Barry Goldwater.” Encouraged by Reagan’s leadership, the Republican Party would begin its slow but increasingly firm alliance with the so-called Christian right and various conservative organizations, eventually aligning with the Tea Party and, during the Trump years, the MAGA movement. Reagan’s arrival in 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 American 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 archenemy of a young and demonstrative American New Left, driven by cultural change, engaged in political action, and enraged by America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. But none of these questions explain why his re-election in 1972 was so crucial.

More to the point: Nixon’s team, trying to ensure that the president gained four more years in office, employed clandestine, shadowy 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, in collusion with campaign staff, had been illegally attacking political opponents, and had even attempted (five months before the election) to plant surveillance devices in the area. watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee. Nixon’s top advisers then conspired to cover up their involvement or knowledge of the plans. Dozens of people would be charged or plead guilty to Watergate-related 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 remained firm. And as Chief Justice Warren Burger stated in his historic opinion before the Supreme Court, no man, not even the president, is “above the law.”

10. OBAMA VS. McCAIN (2008)

one-term senator barack obama He defeated Arizona Senator 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 would be occupied by a black man. As Obama said in the first line of his victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, “If there is anyone who still doubts that the United States is a place where anything is possible; Who still wonders if the dream of our founders is still alive in our time? “Those who still question the power of our democracy have their answer tonight.”

9. JOHNSON VS. GOLDEN WATER (1964)

The November after John Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson would win in a landslide. And he was determined to keep his predecessor’s promise to heed the calls of the civil rights movement. Working closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, Johnson managed to push through the passage of two historic bills: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; this last one, saying the president, was “as enormous as any victory won on any battlefield.” By eradicating racial barriers, one by one, the twin initiatives forever altered the electoral landscape at the local, state and federal levels.

8. FDR VS. VACUUM CLEANER (1932)

Franklin Roosevelt’s unrivaled four-term presidency began in the midst of the Great Depression and ended as the Allies were on the verge of winning World War II. Taking over the reins from Herbert Hoover, a president mired in the nation’s fiscal free fall following the stock market crash. 1929 accidentFDR would take the helm during a tumultuous period in which he helped rescue the United States from economic implosion, introduced the Social Security system, and, working with other world leaders, helped save much of Europe and Asia from the domination of the Nazis and the Axis powers. That initial 1932 election would have global repercussions that resonate to this day.

7. BUSH VS. BLOOD (2000)

Some still maintain that the elections were a silent coup, a scam. By late afternoon on November 7, 2000, the race was too close to call, all because of suspicions surrounding the ballots in the state of Florida, where the governor happened to be. Jeb Bush brother of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush. After weeks of “hanging votes” and “butterfly votes,” recounts and finger-pointing, many of those fingers directed at Florida’s overwhelmed secretary of state, Katherine Harris—The whole thing degenerated into chaos. Even though vote counts were clearly tilted in Gore’s favor, countless bureaucratic and judicial decisions regarding vote counting continued to fall in Bush’s favor, possibly because Florida politicians and officials had their thumb on the scale. Before long, both sides sought out lawyers and embarked on a monumental lawsuit. Bush vs. Gore. The case, which was taken up by the Supreme Court, was decided by a narrow 5-4 margin and, unsurprisingly, Bush emerged victorious. Many complained: everything seemed to be resolved from the beginning. And yet, from his podium at a joint session of Congress, Vice President Al Gore, the most unlikely arbiter of all, oversaw the certification of Bush’s victory—two months after Election Day.