For the "older" members here...

[Worthless Teen]

Compared to previous elections, just how important is the 2004 race? I remember people saying that 2000 was so important because the winner would get to appoint several SCOTUS judges, but that obviously hasn't happened. What's your two cents?

[blondeatlast]

1. My first vote was for Carter's re-election.

There never has been, and probably never will be in my lifetime, an election this important. We have an immoral, illegal war, an economy in shambles, a deficit my GRANDchildren will be paying off (my son is 7 now, btw), the miost fundamental assault on our civil rights since before the Voting Rights Act, health care for the wealthy, rampant poverty...

I could go on, but I'm sure others can add to my list.

[volosong]

18. THE MOST CRITICAL ELECTION I'VE EVER SEEN

And I cast my first vote for Hubert Humphrey in 1968!

[Auntie Bush]

36. I've been voting for about 40 years.

Never in my life has an election been more important. But this is the first time I've ever donated to a candidate or actively participated in an election. Wes Clark was my first...He got my juices going and Kerry was the second. This is also he first time I fear for our country if Bush wins/steals the election. Go Kerry go!

[NMDemDist2]

2. it's important enough for me to join my local Dem Party, walk the

streets of my neighborhood, spend hours phone banking, contribute to a presidential candidate for the first time in 30 years of active voting, talk and read politics practically 24/7, put Kerry stickers on my car (two of them) first political bumper stickers EVER, pin a K/E pin to my purse that I carry everywhere, stock voter registration forms in my car

Is that important enough?

[Dr Fate]

10. I'll drink to that- we ALL need to MORE than just voting this year!

CHEERS to you!!!

[bread_and_roses]

12. Same here

I am no fan of either Carter or Clinton, though I voted for both. I loathed and still loathe both Reagan and Bush the First with deep and abiding passion, but I think the current pluto-theo-cratic murderous war-mongering, near-fascist profiteers of human suffering and death are even worse.

[cmd]

19. AZDemDist6 just wrote my bio

One difference - I've been voting for 40 years. This is the first election to motivate me to become an activist. It's the most important election of my life. cmd

[SW FL Dem]

40. Mine too

I was active in college, my first vote was for Carter in 1976. I wasn't active until recently, college, grad school and life got in the way. I got my wake up call in 2000. Now I am a block captain and volunteer what time I have. I have my bumper sticker on my car and my button on my purse with extras to hand out to anyone who likes mine. Now that school is back in session, I plan to get even more involved.

[aquart]

3. Are you joking, Worthless?

This has gone WAY beyond justices. This is about fascism seizing control of our government and our economy.

fascism n. 1. A philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism. From The American Heritage Dictionary

[Pegleg Thd]

4. This country has been put

in the worst shape I have seen it in my 66+ years. Unless the bushco criminals are eradicated this year we will be worse than Germany before WW2... Our only REAL salvation will be in the demolition of the repuke party and the "religious right" mess.:nuke: :nuke:

[Raven]

5. I have to tell you,

I have voted since 1968...I've seen Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Carter, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr.

Every election, to me, is critical but until now, I have never felt that my vote would be a vote against an evil, venal, lazy, stupid man with the potential to destroy this country. This year I will crawl to the polls if I have to!

[madmax]

6. First, I'd like to say you're not a 'Worthless Teen'...

You are the future and your interest is heartening. :hug:

Prior to selection 2000 I wasn't very political. I was one who voted for the 'lesser of two evils' type. Being young, raising a family, chasing my tail just to hold ground are the many excuses I have for not being more involved. I've had to play catch up on what the government and politicians have done while I was not paying attention.

Having said that, the events of the last almost 4 years and what I've learned about the Reagan/Bush/Bush/Quayle/Clinton/Gore/Bush/Cheney years have convinced me that I'm more of a liberal than I thought I was and that this election is truly the MOST important of my lifetime. Kerry is the only chance, imho to stop this fascist juggernaut and perhaps move the Democrats more to the left. That's my 2 cents.

[Gyre]

7. There's NEVER been a more important race.

The republicans of yore had a general sort of ethic. This new group is without scruples. Combine that with a lame-duck, born again Armageddon-seeking nimrod who thinks he's THE "war president", with Iran telling Israel to eff off and you've got WWIII (ie, first nuclear war) in the making. If you haven't done it already, forget about having kids in a nuclear-contaminated atmosphere. Depending on your age, get ready to be drafted.

Gyre

[Cornus]

8. MOST important race...

...in our country's history. This Resident has taken our country to new lows. I only hope that we can recover by electing Kerry.

[marlakay]

9. Voting since 1974

First campaign to work fulltime in or put any time in. I use to think it was good enough to vote. Now I realize like others that another 4 years of bush admin and our country will have lost most of its freedoms. We loose more and more everyday with this admin and WE have to fight back!! This is the worst, like the book says, worse than Watergate, and I remember that because we had one tv and it was all my dad watched for months and months, like the rest of america.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. It's absolutely the most important election in

my lifetime. I am old enough to have voted for Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 primaries and I remember back to Eisenhower's first win (over Truman.)

2000 was important, one reason being the Supreme Court appointments that you mention, but this year we have three and a half years' evidence of why we cannpt allow Bush* a second term. And we still must face the reality of SCOTUS. It has been quite unexpected that none of the justices have retired -- or died -- since 200, and would be truly unusual if none did before 2008.

In 1968, we wanted to end an immoral war and that meant ending Johnson's presidency. Yet Johnson had been a leader on civil rights legislation, a president we might have wanted to keep if he hadn't tied himself to Viet Nam.

In 2004, we want to end an immoral war and we have a man in power who has given us no reason to keep him in power. Only his rich corporate cronies benefit from his policies. His administration has attacked our civil rights, particularly privacy rights. The stakes are enormous.

In years past, I never feared that our country would fall apart if one of the candidates gained the White House. This year, I do fear that.

[TacticalPeek]

14. I agree on everything, except Truman. (;-)

Ike beat Adlai Stevenson twice.

Truman, like LBJ, opted out of a second run.

(IIRC)

[H2O Man]

13. It is the most important election

in our nation's history. If Kerry does not win, it will mark as large a "historical marker" as the Civil War. I am, by the way, likely the very oldest person on DU.

[Democat]

44. The oldest person on DU?

Good for you if that's true! :)

[terrya]

15. For me, this is the most important election that I've ever voted in.

My first vote was for Jimmy Carter in 1976.

I used to think the most important was 1992. But this election is far more important. Everything is at stake here this time around, folks.

[El Supremo]

16. The most important since 1932

We almost had a revolution because of the Great Depression. We may have one now because this country has gone to shit again.

1968 was the most divisive, but in hindsight not that important.

Unless the Democrats can take back this country's leadership, two things are going to happen. The middle class will become part of the lower class. And this country will be regarded by the rest of the world as a threat to world peace. Pretty scary to me.

[Warpy]

17. Before 1980, it didn't much matter which gang of thieves got in

Kennedy had lowered taxes on the richest. Nixon had started the EPA. Presidents had good and bad things on their records, all of them.

Then Reagan came in and sold the Repuglicans, long the party of the wealthy, to the religious wack jobs. Suddenly, elections started to mean something, keeping theocrats the hell out of power.

Unfortunately, people were more interested in bait and switch tax cuts than they were in protecting a democratic republic from its worst enemies, and Reagan got two terms, followed by Poppy Bush.

This, however, is the most important election of all. Bush is a monster. There is simply no other word to describe a man who considers himself anointed by god to ride far above the rule of law and treaty, to use human beings in whatever fashion he chooses, to destroy everything this country has ever stood for.

We have simply got to get this man out of power. We have no other choice.

[WilliamPitt]

20. The most important election since 1864

Not that I was around that the time, but as a student of history...

[El Supremo]

23. Why not 1860?

The election of Lincoln (who did not even appear on the southern ballots) is what caused the South to finally vote to secede.

1864 was amazing in that it was able to be held during the Civil War, but it did not change history like 1860's.

[KoKo]

52. The most important election in the history of America...because nothing

of this country as we know it will be left if they are in for four more years. :nuke:

[polmaven]

21. My first presidential vote

was for George McGovern in 1972. (We had to be 21 before we could vote in those days). I soon had a sticker on my car that read "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts".

My mother's first vote for president was for Roosevelt in 1940.

Both of us agree this is the single most important election for this country in our lifetimes.

The issues in this election go to the very heart of this Republic. The very foundations on which this country was built are at stake. Yes, some of that danger still comes from the appointment of Supreme Court Justices, but that is not the only danger anymore.

The Constitution itself is in jeopardy with this administration usurping more and more power for itself and eroding the separation of powers so vital to the existence of a democratic republic.

THAT is how important this election is!

[El Supremo]

26. Me too.

And I am so sorry that I didn't vote for McGovern. You know why? Because as a stupid 21 year old, I actually bought the lie that McGovern was a coward during a bombing mission in World War II. I didn't discover the truth until I read Stephen Ambrose's book 'Wild Blue.'

McGovern didn't fight the accusations. I sounds like Kerry has learned from that.

[Piperay]

48. Same here

was my first vote and I gave it to Nixon. :shrug: :-( It wasn't cause of military service, it was because I bought into the idea that McGovern was some far out radical, stupid, stupid me. :eyes:

[Virginian]

42. Me too. That was the election of "Watergate."

But we didn't know it at the time.

Perhaps there are a few "Illegal activities" that may fall on Bush's* head during this election. Only this time we are finding out about them before November not afterward as in Watergate. Maybe Rove has gotten a little over confident lately.

If we could only get the fundamentalists to open their eyes and realize that Bush is more like the Anti-Christ than Christ and that he is not the anointed one as he claims to be, it would make me feel better about the country. Why are so many of these people fooled by him? Is he so evil that he can cast spells over people?

WWJD? Just the opposite of just about everything Bush does.

We need a gentler world and civilization is supposed to promote that. This civilized country is doing just the opposite. We are stimulating hatred towards us like a schoolyard bully. Violence only creates more violence.

Jobs are leaving to third world countries. Because of this, we may soon be a third world country.

Yes, this is the most important election I can remember!

[American liberal]

51. hear, hear...

I have never felt such a sense of impending doom over a reelection (although Reagan was pretty darn scary to me at the time) than I do now. But Reagan was just out to destroy the economy. Bushco is out to destroy the Constitution, our relationship with the rest of the world, and our entire way of life. Under Reagan, I adapted. I cannot even fathom what would happen to this country if Bushco is allowed 4 more years. In my 22-year voting career (I was upset that I was too young to vote in 1980 and couldn't wait to try to vote Reagan out in '84), this has to be the most crucial election ever.

[chieftain]

22. Not Since ' 68

have we faced such an important election . The philosophies couldn't be more divergent and the country could not be in more peril than in the year that RFK and MLK were shot down and now .

[BillZBubb]

Certainly the most important since the depression.

We've haven't been in worse shape at home and abroad, while led by such an incompetent.

This country is now villified internationally and universally. Our military is totally over-extended and our real enemies are getting little attention. Nothing good can come of this.

Domestically, we are becoming a bankrupt nation. When the baby boom peak hits, the cost of Bush*s malfeasance will be almost financially unbearable. Workers will continue to see their standard of living drop, while the guys at the top make out like bandits. The Repugs have no concern about protecting US jobs and maintaining reasonable wages. They'd just as soon let laborers in China set our wage rate.

We are also creeping towards a "benevolent" fascism. Bush* making SCOTUS appointments would be the final nail in the coffin of a reasonable judiciary.

[TheRovingGourmet]

24. You are going to have to type in a larger font if you want

my opinion as I can't read that small typin' your doing. :)

[leftynyc]

25. I honestly think that none of the justices

retired was because they didn't want decision 2000 to be their legacy. I think they, like a lot of people, are waiting to see if * is elected legitimately. The last election was so tainted, it'll be a scar forever.

That said, I think that 2-4 may retire in the next 4 years which makes this a VERY important election. I genuinely fear for this country if Kerry does not win.

[blue neen]

32. The Supreme Court appointing * as president IS a scar on this nation's

history...But I don't think Bush can EVER be elected legitimately.

I have never seen so many people energized over an election, and rightly so. This administration and everyone associated with it is
despicable and downright evil.

I've been voting since 1980.

[napi21]

27. I've read all the posts on this thread. I agree with them all!

I've been voting since I turned 21 in 1964, but I too used to think it didn't make much difference which crook was in power, even though I always voted Dem. This is the first time ever that I donated money to any candidate, and have gone to meetups too.

I must also say that I don't think we're alone with these feelings. I hear a lot of people very interested in voting who didn't pay much attention in past elections. That's why I think the polls are wrong. I don't think this is going to be a VERY CLOSE election. I think Kerry is going to win by a wide margin. I've been checking, and most of the polls base their analysis on past voting history. The people who seem most energized are those who want shrub OUT! If 70% or 80% of the eligible voters go to the polls in November, we will all be able to watch as the media, the polsters, and the Pubs, all scratch their heads and say "What in the world happened?" It'll be a lot of fun to do that! I can't wait!

[3trievers]

28. serious

As a Canadian who follows American politics I believe this election is important for the world.This madness in the middle east has progressed from a legitimate American reaction in Afghanistan to a bloodthirsty thirst for power and profit in Iraq.A continuation of these policies will threaten the stability of the world.Maybe an overreaction on my part but I think not.

[Karenina]

49. Definitely NOT

an overreaction. The *predators that have seized the American government pose a SERIOUS THREAT to the entire world.

[tedoll78]

29. I'm not that old..

(only 25), but I feel the need to speak-out since you brought-up SCOTUS.

On a regular basis for the past 3.5 years, I've awoken in the middle of the night in a cold sweat from the nightmare that Justice Stevens has died. If Stevens, O'Connor, and Rehnquist (largely considered the 3 most likely) were to retire or die, and if Bush were to appoint their replacements, we'd not see a decent Supreme Court ruling in at least 20 years. That's why I'm not going to nit-pick over Issue X and Issue Y if Kerry disappoints me: I'm looking at the overall, long-term progressive cause.

[Jackpine Radical]

30. In retrospect, I think voting for Millard Fillmore was one of my

biggest mistakes.

BTW--what the hell do you mean "older?"

[enigmatic]

33. Millard had great poofy hair...

that's how he got my vote!

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

34. haha

I remember I had to do a report on Millard Fillmore in 4th grade. It was a very boring report.

[Jackpine Radical]

35. Well, we were pretty bored with him in the White House too--

but we liked it that way.

[WI_DEM]

31. This election is the most important in my memory

Bush has been a disaster. Yes, we got thru Bush's first term (so far) without any Supreme Court nominations, but there is absolutely no way we will get thru another four years without 2-3 and if this guy is re-selected the Court will be tilted towards the hard right for years to come. This is the issue which drives me. I trust Kerry to select more mainstream, moderate to liberal Justices while I trust Bush to appoint more Thomas' or Scalia's. The constitution cannot afford that.

I think 1968 was also an important election because had HHH won over Nixon we might have gotten out of Vietnam sooner and we wouldn't have had a Watergate, but compared to Bush, Nixon was a liberal.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[The Velveteen Ocelot]

38. My first vote was for McGovern.

But this election is the most important, by far, of my lifetime. Until now I thought Nixon was the worst president ever and we'd never, ever see a worse one. Boy, was I wrong... Nothing is more important than Kerry winning this election. Nothing.

[Misskittycat]

41. Same here

My thoughts precisely. My first vote was also for McGovern. Nixon's looking like a small-time crook compared to the current criminal mastermind.

[troublemaker]

39. The most important election since 1860, and perhaps ever.

The threat to our constitutional form of government posed by Bush is greater than anything we faced in WWII. If Bush is elected the United States of America will probably cease to exist within 20-30 years.

[AuntPatsy]

43. Definately the Most Important Election ever held...

I am ashamed to admit I knew not much about politics until this last election when I began getting involved in my children's futures. I did't vote the "Pretender" in so I take no responsibility for this blight in America's history..

This past year, I have never been intense as to finding myself, eating, sleeping and walking political issues. Though my family has gotten a bit insane watching me transpire into someone they never knew, my daughter informed me today that her husband just put a "Kerry/Edwards" sticker on their car..

She was a bit leery, this is Texas after all, but she conceded to him that he did a good thing. This will be the first election any of my children vote. The first one they have ever been interested in enough to worry about issues other than those that only touch them personaly..

A very important election year..definately..

[dmr]

46. Most definately, Patsy

Welcome to DU and the intense world of living and breathing politics! It's really hard to take sometimes.

:hi:

[incapsulated]

45. It's the Mother of All Elections

Good vs. Evil, the Apocalypse, cats and dogs living together..

The whole nine yards!

[69KV]

47. 2004 is like 1932 or 1860

This is one of those rare elections which is going to determine whether the U.S. of A. will be rejuvinated and survive into the future, or whether our little experiment in liberal democracy is finished. Looks like it's an every 72 year thing.

That would mean that John Kerry is to our generation what Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were in their day. Those are pretty big shoes for Kerry to fill. I believe he's up to the job.

If Bush is re-elected/selected, this country could very well be headed for civil war. That would not be a good thing.

[EST]

50. This is,without any doubt,

The single most important event to occur in a hundred years. Yes, WWII was important, but this time, I think, the rest of the world is watching with much apprehension. This aggressive bunch of idiots seems dead set on turning this country into a fascist republic and, I suspect, if we are incapable of stopping this inexorable slide, the rest of the world is going to have to help us save us from ourselves. I helped vote Nixon back in in 1972 because he was still insisting he was stopping the Vietnam war. I detested the war-mongering Lyndon Johnson and his lies. As a young, not particularly socially conscious, man, my own selfish needs and plans were far more important than the distant, not easily recognized plight of others. Political reality sinks in very slowly for some. If nothing else, my wife, who was a strong, proud conservative, will now vote for John Kerry. My own work has distanced me somewhat from some folks who don't yet recognize the danger we're in and think elections don't matter. What finally moved her over was my asking her if she really thought of herself as a Conservative or a liberal, then showing her the dictionary definitions. She was as horrified as she ever gets. Many still think I'm nuts, but I have doubled the number of democratic voters in this house and it has only taken 15 years. At least now I can start convincing her to vote for Barack Obama and be satisfied with that. The horror of WW IV can still be averted (the US against the rest of the world), I hope. Keep up the good work, folks, and depend on me to do the same.

[bobthedrummer]

53. This is it, our last chance to begin to restore some balance to a military

private enterprise form of government that the US has used and promoted as a model worldwide for over 60 years and called "democracy"-it has happened here--the national security state.

We are up against a form of fascism imo.

[tilsammans]

54. I registered immediately upon becoming eligible to vote . . .

. . . and cast my first vote for McGovern in '72. I've voted in every election since, always for Dems/liberals.

These days, I keep several voter registration forms in my car for anyone who needs wants to register.

NEVER in my lifetime has a presidential election had more at stake. NEVER.