Midterm Questions Suggest a Nation on the Precipice

There will be many important elections during the next year. Among these are gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the mayoral election in New York City and other judgeships and special elections to replace officials who retire, pass away or for other reasons leave their posts. They all will pose somber questions about who we are. 

The campaigns are in various stages of testing the waters and pulling themselves together. Or, in other cases, deciding to sit 2026 out.

Here is an interesting and important question: If the election was held today, what high level topics would candidates be asked about?

Besides dealing with the questions below, candidates–at least those who are not afraid of the record they their party has amassed since January–would be pointing to the importance of registering to vote and voting. It’s never been easier and it’s never been more important.

A couple of decades ago, such a list would not touch on the essence of who we are. Whether or not to raise or cut taxes, for instance, is not trivial. But it doesn’t strike at the roots of our republic. Environmental laws?  Capital punishment? Mandated fuel efficiency standards? All important, but not existential.

Such a list created today suggests that we are in very deep trouble because the answers suggest that our democracy is under deep and sustained threat. Some of those answers:

• Does competitive redistricting threaten our democracy?
• How far will Trump push the envelope on invalidating rights?
• How far will the administration push the envelope on encroaching on the legislative and judicial branches?
• Is the Supreme Court very conservative or in the tank?
• Will the administration disregard Supreme Court decisions with which it disagrees?
• Are the tariffs putting us at the edge of a recession?
• What will happen if the administration issues orders for troops to fire on peaceful protesters?
• Will the administration try to undermine midterm elections?
• Is Trump really pulling the strings or is he fully or partially being controlled?
• Can blue states truly protect their citizens from federal overreach?
• How much more of Project 2025 will the administration try to implement?
• What are the rights of people detained by ICE and ICE-adjacent paramilitary forces?
• Does the diversity and huge size of America make it more difficult for Trump to become an autocrat?
• Is the administration too lame and corrupt to actually implement all the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act?
• Will a full accounting of reasonable suspicions that the president is a pedophile every be made?

This is only a partial list. The point is that the topics that are on the table next year are fundamental to who we are as a nation.

During the presidential campaign the Democrats warned people that democracy itself was at stake. The fact that the questions above are on the table is a strong argument that those statements have turned out to be more than scare tactics or political gamesmanship.