Editor's Note:
Joe Lockhart is a CNN political analyst.
He was the White House Press Secretary from 1998 to 2000 in the administration of President Bill Clinton.
He is a co-host of the "Words Matter" podcast.
The opinions expressed in this comment are yours.
See more opinion at cnne.com/opinion
(CNN) -
Has the United States ever seen a presidential campaign like this?
One involving a candidate as unusual as President Donald Trump, with his small but rabid base, running for re-election during a pandemic, a crushing economic crisis and a deadly season of consecutive natural events?
Of course none of us alive have witnessed anything like this.
But look further, and you will see that there is something very old and very familiar about the 2020 election race.
The clash between Trump and Joe Biden is between two different philosophies and values that have clashed in the United States for more than 240 years.
In this corner, individualism.
This is the ideology that values personal freedom and autonomy, the right to pursue one's own goals and desires, and values the rights of the individual above those of the state or other social groups.
No one embodies that philosophy more than Trump.
He is an example who walks and breathes
"I'm fine" and everyone else can fend for themselves
.
We hear it every day from Trump.
Americans have the right to make their own decisions about what they do, how they live, and what risks they will take with their own bodies.
An irony here is that the philosophy does not extend to reproductive rights.
But I digress.
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Trump takes it to the extreme by repeatedly putting his own supporters at risk of contracting coronavirus in pursuit of his personal goal of being reelected.
Apparently he doesn't believe in personal or shared sacrifice.
That was on full display at Sunday's controversial Nevada rally, which challenged accepted science and state regulations.
Afterward, Trump did not express concern for his followers, huddled in the room.
He doesn't wear a mask, has taunted Biden and reporters for wearing one, and on Tuesday night on the ABC channel forum delivered a strange tale about how waiters don't like to wear masks.
Apparently he is not concerned with his own health because he does not come into contact with anyone who has not been examined.
As his daughter Ivanka said, "No one who is not wearing a mask can approach him."
Simply put, it appears that Trump believes that the only one he has to worry about is himself.
At the other corner is the opposing philosophical force in American society, illustrated by the Joe Biden campaign.
Biden argues that we do not live independently of each other, but that we are all in this together.
That is a value that has come to represent the philosophical bent of the Democratic Party over the past 50 years.
President Bill Clinton spoke about opportunity, responsibility and community.
That community, the ability to depend on your neighbor and their government to be there for you and commonly sacrifice when necessary.
Hillary Clinton described how it takes a village to raise a child and organize American life.
Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union was framed in these words: “No one built this country alone.
This nation is great because we build it together.
This nation is great because we work as a team.
In a previous speech, Obama argued that “our success has never been focused solely on the survival of the fittest.
It has been about building a nation in which we are all better off.
We come together, collaborate and do our part ”.
The original debates at the Constitutional Convention were about the division between federalists and those who defended the rights of the states.
They covered serious issues like how our federal government and our banking system would work, but they also exposed this philosophical divide in the country that has never really been resolved and that drives political discourse today.
For example, watching CNN interview Trump supporters who attended the Nevada rally without social distancing or masks, we heard an even more basic version of American individualism.
They spoke that they had the right to attend the event and that they were the ones taking the risk, one that they were willing to take.
Despite the fact that scientists and medical experts with long experience in epidemiology and transmission of infectious diseases have told them time and again, including the administration's own health officials, that the virus regularly manifests without symptoms, many of them refuse to accept responsibility for the risk and danger they pose to the rest of their community, whether for those gathered to celebrate Trump or for those in their towns, cities and workplaces.
That's where this strong individualism, glorified from Wall Street to Western novels and John Wayne movies, collides with the risk of every element in all of our American communities.
Witness more than 400,000 Americans attending a South Dakota motorcycle event recently, exercising their personal rights and also spreading infections.
For the next 50 days, Trump will remind you every day of your personal rights and his as well.
He will continue to tell people in the suburbs that he has the right to keep different people out of there.
He will poke fun at Joe Biden and the Democrats who are taking steps, like wearing masks, to keep us all safe.
It will let all Americans devise their own plans to stay safe and healthy while pushing schools, businesses and sports to open up, defying the guidelines of their own government.
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Above all, it will despise the idea that, as a national community, we are responsible for one another and must share in the common sacrifice.
We see this as he focuses on how the stock market is doing on a daily basis: He claimed Tuesday night that everyone owns stocks, but the reality is that only half of Americans do.
Rather than focus on the struggling job market, he pointed out how well he and other wealthy people like him are doing as other Americans struggle to keep their homes and feed their families.
Biden and the Democrats explicitly argue that we can't rise to the occasion if we don't stick together.
Individuals did not reject the Nazis in World War II or launch the war on terror after 9/11.
These efforts were effective only because the country and our communities worked together.
Biden will use the debates and their announcements to emphasize that the community is America's best: Basic community mindset and community values are not a deep state plot to take away people's rights.
For centuries, our country has cleverly balanced two conflicting philosophies in a way that has made America the envy of the world.
But the presidency of Donald Trump is upsetting this balance.
It is forcing us to decide what value we will live on, and this will have profound implications for the future of our country and the happiness of those lucky enough to be here.
And that is why when both candidates say it is the most important election in our lives, they are both right.
Elections 2020