I really have one singular thought after spending the past week at the GOP National Convention in Tampa: This is the most important election in my lifetime.

I know that sounds like the typical pabulum spewed by political hacks and campaign operatives. The difference this year is pretty simple. In those status quo elections, the American people were smart enough to see through the hyperbole. This time, the American people are smart enough to recognize the truth of the statement.

You can feel the energy everywhere. My proof? Consider these three examples.

1) The movie 2016 was third in the nation at the box office last week.

2) Scott Rasmussen, a noted pollster, just released a statement saying that GOP voter registration nationwide is at a record level he has never seen before.

3) In the big-problem-for-Obama-state of Iowa, Republicans have added Republicans have added 36,838 new voters while Democrats have lost 76,515 voters since 2008.

Energy and enthusiasm are the anecdotal evidences of an electorate that gets the urgency of 2012. We are clearly at a crossroads. Americans will either decide to be like every other mediocre country in Europe or we will decide to re-claim the mantle of exceptionalism and not apologize for being a “city on a hill.”

For the first time in modern polling, a majority of parents believe their child’s life in America will be worse and more difficult than their life was.

That is a sobering thought.

The American dream isn’t about owning a home or going to college or buying a fancy car. The American dream is about giving your children a better life than you had.

These are the stakes and the American voters are getting it.

We will either decide to be a great country or a mediocre country.

Amazingly, I don’t have to attach Party labels to that statement because we all know which Party believes in American greatness and which Party believes America is like any other country.

Follow Nathan Sproul on Twitter @nathansproul