Quote Originally Posted by heartfelty View Post
The tension between practical needs and utopian solutions is central to our understanding of the communal tradition in America.

Тот напряжённость между практический нужды с утопический решение есть главный на наш понимание из коммунальный
традиция в Америка.
- "Тот" is not needed. Even if it was needed, it should be "та" because "напряжённость" is feminine.
- "между" requires Instrumental. Therefore "практический" and "главный" should be in plural Instrumental, not in singular masculine Nominative, "нужды" - in Instrumental, "решение" - in plural Instrumental: "между практическими нуждами и утопическими решениями".
- verb "to be" = "есть" in present is normally replaced by dash in Russian (+ Nominative). Or, alternatively, for the formal style "является" + Instrumental can be used.
- "главный" should be in neutral gender when used as object rather than attributive.
- "на" is not a way here. It should be "для" + Genitive or "в" + Prepositional.
- "understanding of" = ''понимание" + Genitive.
- "коммунальный" means "municipal" or "domestic", here "communal" should be "общественный" (in Genitive singular feminine because "традиция" is feminine).

Finally: Напряжённость между практическими нуждами и утопическими решениями - главное в нашем понимании общественной традиции в Америке.

This is grammatically correct although not perfect stylistically and semantically.

Maybe you'd better start with some theory and simple exercises?