Why is every election the most important of our lifetime?

It gets said every cycle: this is the most important election of our lifetime. Both sides say it, every time, with total conviction.

Part of it is simple marketing. Urgency drives turnout and turnout drives donations. But part of it may be true in a way we don't like to admit: each election sets the terms for the next one, and the stakes compound.

The trouble is what the phrase does to us between elections. If every vote is existential, every opponent becomes a threat, and every compromise looks like surrender.