There have been many times in the past when people have said, “This election is the most important one of our lifetime” – but this one really is.

The country is at a fork in the road and the paths go in radically different directions depending on how people vote.

It’s fascinating that the most important election in modern history is all, 100 percent, completely and absolutely about a man who isn’t on the ballot. That’s really amazing if you think about it. You can scour any ballot in any precinct across the country up and down and nowhere will you find the name Donald Trump, but, in a way, you could replace every name on every ballot with the name Trump.

The president says, “Vote as if I’m on the ballot.”

Which is exactly what people have been doing and will do: Those who love Trump and love all the things he has been doing will go in and vote for Republican senators across the country, and those who despise him will go in – if they haven’t already – and vote Democratic all the way from senator down to dogcatcher.

Democrats currently have high spirits because, on the eve of the election, Kalshi and Polymarket have the Democrats’ odds of winning the Senate at 74 percent – and both markets say that, barring a miracle, the Democrats will take the House.

Also, the last polling data from the most reliable polls had the Democrats leading in most key Senate races.

But Democrats are still very worried for very good reasons: MAGA voters are always underpolled; Trump has won two elections when most people thought he would lose; there’s a lot of last-minute infighting between the establishment Democrats and the socialist wing of the party – and even a 25 percent chance is a chance.

 In baseball, a 25 percent batting average isn’t bad at all and those batters get hits all the time.

Also, there are countless times in history when Democrats have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

By the way, those prediction market odds of taking the Senate are a drastic reversal from what they were the day before Trump was sworn in. In January of 2025, the prediction markets were giving Democrats an 18 percent chance of winning the Senate.

Democrats are also worried that, even if they do win, the winners may not be certified in Republican states and they are even worried that, even if they are certified, they won’t be allowed to take their seats in January.

Republicans, conversely, are worried that races in this election will be decided by fraudulent votes from illegals, dead people, Democratic action committees and others.

And both sides are so worried because the consequences for this country are unimaginably immense.

There’s only one regard in which things will look the same after the election: Whichever side wins will continue to spend the country into financial ruin. America’s debt is over $40 trillion; the deficit this year is $2 trillion and at no point since former President Bill Clinton brought in a healthy surplus has any party shown any political will to do anything other than print money and spend it like crazy.

Which means we will get inflation whether or not the war with Iran ends tomorrow and whether or not all tariffs are removed the day after that.

A small Diet Coke at the Regal Cinema in Friendly Shopping Center is now, amazingly, $9.

There’s one other thing that will remain the same no matter who wins the Senate: There will be massive investigations of the president and his family and all of those around him.

However, as long as the president and those around him have been honest with the American people and they haven’t done anything corrupt, they have nothing to worry about – other than the annoyance of having to spend the time and money to defend themselves and their reputations.

 And, to be honest, turnabout is fair play, and the president probably deserves it given the way he went after James Comey for posting a picture of seashells and the way he tried to jail the former Olympian for dipping his hand into the Reflecting Pool rather than just admitting the people he hired to fix the pool screwed it up.

However, everything else will be radically different depending on the outcome. If the Republicans win, it will be an endorsement of Trump and his policies and the actions the administration is taking. If the Democrats win the Senate, Trump will still be Trump but he won’t be able to get done anything he cannot do with an executive order.

Republicans can take solace in the fact that, if the Democrats win on November 3, no law they want to pass will get through because Trump will veto anything they even think about passing.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Democrats and Republicans had battles but they often came together to do things that would help the American people. That doesn’t happen anymore and perhaps it will never happen again.

It is a shame that Republicans and Democrats in the federal government can no longer work together on anything at all, ever, no matter what – but that’s the way it is now, which is why the path that Americans choose this election is likely the most important decision they will ever make.

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