An Exceptionally Important Election

What is the most important issue in this election? It almost doesn’t matter, because on every issue that might be of prime importance, Donald Trump is better than Kamala Harris by a mile. But we may consider the question as an exercise.

Founding editor Scott McConnell thinks the fate of the global populist movement will be among the issues decided in November. Voters around the world are getting tired of the globalist policy platform, but, especially on the core issues of migration and endless wars, their politicians have been resistant to democratic correction. A Trump victory would boost the fortunes of anti-globalist politicians across Europe; the reverse would weaken them.

William S. Lind believes free speech is the top issue. If you lose freedom of speech, it doesn’t really matter what other freedoms you temporarily enjoy. They will be lost eventually. Democratic politicians are becoming more and more open about their willingness to suppress dissent in the name of “misinformation.” Lind has some recommendations for what a second Trump administration could do to roll back their efforts.

Yours truly, the print editor, doesn’t understand why we’re talking about anything except the fact that they tried to kill Donald Trump. It had been decades since the last near-miss assassination attempt against a presidential candidate. Now Trump has been the victim of not one but two. The circumstances of these crimes are still murky, and perhaps always will be, but surely it is enough to say that someone out there cares enough to want Donald Trump dead, and that’s a reason to vote for him.

Backpage columnist Matthew Schmitz recognizes in Tim Walz a fellow native of the Midwest, and the catchphrase “Mind your own damn business” has a certain appeal to their shared demographic and indeed to all Americans. But Schmitz translates its subtext. The two parties care about different types of freedom, so we must ask ourselves who will mind what business under the new Democratic regime.

Mathieu Bock-Côté will not be voting in this election. He lives in France and hails from Canada. But he has a clear sense of the stakes in November, because his own people, the Québécois, face the same threat: dispossession. If demographic trends continue, the Québécois will be a minority in their own province. This has led to an unexpected revival of nationalism and even separatism, a surprising turn of history with lessons for other countries.

Election season can be relentlessly political, with exhausting side effects for those of us who prefer to think about other subjects from time to time. It is therefore with joy and indeed a sense of relief that we offer an Arts & Letters section featuring no politics at all. Christopher Caldwell presents his appreciation of eccentric historian Jackson Lears, Brad Pearce critiques a weak piece of true crime about his home region, and the stalwart Peter Tonguette finds a good word for Edna Ferber.