Our Last Chance

       Around two years ago—that is, a few weeks before the November 2024 general election—my friend and colleague Mitch Stephens and I compiled for this site an extensively annotated list of, in our opinion, the most consequential elections of our lifetime.

      We counted down from what we considered to have turned out to be the least consequential—Carter defeating Ford in 1976—to what we considered then the most consequential, which turned out to be the not-yet-happened contest pitting Trump versus Harris. We gave rankings to almost forgotten elections (Eisenhower defeats Stevenson, the first time, #18) and still-controversial ones (Bush defeats Gore, #2). You can take a look at our listings and our explanations here.  

      But when we did that list, we limited ourselves at the time to presidential elections. Of course we did, because those are the elections that gather all the attention and can theoretically change the course of the country.

      Yet I’m here now to argue that this election coming up on Nov. 3, this non-presidential midterm, this election where no one is running to lead the country, is, by far, the most important election of our lifetime.

      And yes, I know, as we wrote in that earlier piece, that “it must be kept in mind that it is always easy to see the current election as among the most consequential ever.” 

      But first, let’s think about what we know of the second Trump Administration, think of what it has done, since January 2025.

      Think of the unprovoked war-on-a whim against Iran, the war that was supposed to end in days but has dragged on now for months, killed thousands and horribly damaged the world and the U.S. economies. And consider what it’s meant in terms of gas prices, isolation from allies, cost in both materiel and moral standing.

      Think of the racist, fascistic roundup of immigrants across the country and the use of concentration camps—excuse me, “detention centers”—to hold them and then to summarily deport them. Think of Trump sending out his secret police—excuse me, ICE agents—to terrorize and murder citizens in our streets.

      Think of gutting almost all foreign aid and the hundreds of thousands of children across the world who will die from those cuts and from the arbitrary elimination of global disease prevention and cuts to vaccine programs. And the hundreds of thousands who will die in this country from the rolling back of pollution rules and the catastrophic weakening of air and water quality regulations.

      Think of the nonsensical tariffs that have increased prices and pitted our country against almost the entire rest of the world.

      Think of how our president has used his power to repeatedly violate the Constitution and wreak vengeance against those who might oppose him.

      And of course, think of the in-your-face—in-our-face—blatant corruption.

      There is, as well, so, so much more damage this administration has done in such a relatively short time. So much damage that will take years, maybe decades, to repair. If ever.

      Trump, of course, bears the full responsibility for all that has happened, but he is definitely not alone. Because out of fear or, more likely, out of cowardice, the supine Republican-dominated Congress has allowed it all to happen. The House and the Senate, both under Republication control, have only rarely exercised their statutory authority or held Trump and his administration accountable for the rules they have broken and the crimes they have committed.

     There is of course no reason to assume a prostrate Republican Congress in the future will be any braver than it has been in the past. And there is little reason to believe our partisan Supreme Court will step in to save us. And without any roadblocks, imagine the damage Trump and his minions could do in the time before another presidential election—if they allow us to have another free and fair presidential election.  

      Imagine the deaths and the deportations and the curtailment of our free speech and our ability to protest. Imagine the even-more virulent racism. Imagine living in a fully repressed, authoritarian state.

      The only hope to restrain him, to stop the complete dismantling of our democracy, is to strip Republicans of their control of at least one house of Congress. That’s why this election is so different, so significant.

      Some presidential elections have given us the choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It’s hard to imagine the country itself being radically different if, say, Michael Dukakis had defeated George H.W. Bush, rather than the other way around. Of course, occasionally the choice has been stark—America and the world would have been much different if Barry Goldwater had defeated Lyndon Johnson. And sometimes the results have been historic, like when Barack Obama won his first term.

      But in none of these cases did the actual fate of the country, its ability to remain a functioning democracy, lie in the balance.

     It does now.  If the Republican Party retains control of Congress, Trump—and his crazy, dangerous, autocratic rule—would be completely unfettered. Protests, no matter how large or engaged, would be met with guns. Does anyone think now that’s hyperbole?

      This Nov. 3 is the only chance, the last chance, to stop him. If Democrats don’t take control of at least one house of Congress and begin to hold Trump accountable, to rein him in even slightly, the American experiment may be over.

      It’s that simple and that consequential.