One of the oldest get-out-the-vote schemes is that “the current election is the one that is the most important,” that not voting for one candidate or another would mean the election of someone who would lead to a nightmare.

Well, I think most of us have become immune to that sort of political chatter. It never seems to work out quite as horrendously as we’re warned.

But the election of November 3rd of this year will be different. We have had many significant elections in which policy was personified in candidates, Lincoln, FDR, even Trump, but perhaps since our Constitution was originally voted on, none have been so significant as this one for its potential to broadly upend our fundamental philosophy of government. In fact, I would suggest that this Federal election should not be viewed from the perspective of personality at all, but as a referendum on America’s political future for generations to come. Strong words, but meaningful unto themselves.

The Biden folks are clearly making this election about personality, do you like Donald Trump or would you rather a more conciliatory guy like Joe Biden. But the Biden camp has subtly also made this election into something far more fundamental. To secure his nomination, they had to make a deal with the Progressive (a pseudonym to conceal their socialist bent) wing of the Democrat Party. Such a political maneuver is not unusual, promise the extremists something in return for their support and then just forget about it after the election.

But Biden appears to really mean it.

He has bragged that he would be the most Progressive President in history, he signed onto a deal, a contract if you will, with the socialists that outlined how they would fundamentally change our nation, and he has designated far-Left personalities as his policy thought leaders. Not the stuff that politicians usually engage in when they are just trying to sew up minority support within their Party. No, Biden means it when he says he wants to transform the country.

So, the election this November is shaping up to be as the elites like to say a binary choice. Either we support Trump, to include all his foibles, or we support a transformational Biden. Either way we are not so much voting for a person, as you are voting in a referendum on the future course of American life.

Beyond that and perhaps as significant we are also voting on control of Congress. If Trump wins and the Democrats control both Houses of Congress or if Trump wins and the GOP retains control of the Senate nothing much changes, there is balance. If Biden wins and the GOP controls the Senate his socialist pals with their transformational goals will be stymied and there will be balance. But if Biden wins and the Democrats win both Houses of Congress, then the America of a decade from now will look a whole lot different than the America we have known for generations.

Under Biden, the economy of that America would resemble the stagflation under Jimmy Carter or the anemic recovery under Obama. Taxes would soar as wealth transfer in the name of “fairness” would force more and more jobs overseas. Globalism and not Americanism would supplant economic and international policy. Great social issues that have long been held as a reflection of personal freedom, would be held as a reflection of a bureaucrat’s image of the collective good. Personal rights such as religion and gun ownership would become subservient to left wing ideology. Activist judges would be appointed not because of their appreciation of the Constitution and the law, but because of their allegiance to Progressive or socialist principles. Criminal justice would be based upon the principle that the criminal is the victim of an unfair society and therefore law and order as a principle should be diminished. Abortion would become readily available and paid for by the taxpayer. Union leadership would become overwhelmingly powerful, even as union workers and their prized healthcare would be abandoned to open borders and universal healthcare. And all of this would be locked in by liberalized voting controls, allowing non-citizens to vote, and allowing Washington, DC and perhaps Puerto Rico become states, thereby guaranteeing two or four reliable Democratic Senators.

Just as Britain gave Hitler a free hand to transform Europe by signing an agreement in Munich, Biden has given the Sanders/AOC Progressive wing of the Democratic Party a free hand with American policy. But notably, if the Democrats win the Senate and there is a Biden Presidency, it will be only because the American people voted by plebiscite to impose a fundamental change upon themselves.

So, with no doubt in my heart, I say that the election of November 3rd will be far more than an election of personality. It will steer America’s culture and America’s economy in a direction that it has never taken. Everything that has made America great, everything that has meant prosperity and opportunity in a land in which liberty had been the standard, will be gone. Personal freedom will see a name change to collectivism.

The best phrase to describe what this election means to us as voters is caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”). This election will be the most important in generations not because of the candidates but because it is a referendum on the direction that this nation will take for generations to come.