Every four years, we hear a refrain that the presidential election before us is the "most important election of our lifetimes." This line is reflexively repeated by pundits, talkers, and thinkers on both sides of the American political divide, and that repetition always engenders a great deal of backlash. We are reliably informed that our elaborate Constitution, with its intricate checks and balances and federalist system of dual spheres of sovereignty, can withstand any particular president (and Congress). Bills are very hard to pass out of Congress, you see, and rogue presidents can be reined in by the Supreme Court. Didn't you know that gridlock in Washington is a feature, not a bug? Don't you remember watching "Schoolhouse Rock!"? Come on!

I dissent from this blithe dismissal of very real concern. Tuesday's presidential contest, between former President Donald Trump and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris, is the most important election of our lifetimes. There are two reasons for this: one structural and one contextual. They are both important.

First, structure. There is a concept in traditional Jewish thought called yeridat hadorot, or "the decline of the generations." The basic idea is that, because each successive generation is necessarily further away than the generations that preceded it from God's Revelation to Moses at Mount Sinai, each new generation is less reliable than its predecessors........

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