A Second Trump Presidency Would be Terrible for the Economy

Frida Ghitis : We turn fate of our nation over to the least informed and most distracted members of the electorate.

She says half of those who’ve made up their minds seem to have chosen a not-right-in-the-head aspiring autocrat who attempted a violent auto-coup.

Ghitis says the choice between illiberalism and pluralistic democracy shouldn’t be a hard one.

Julian Zelizer : 61 percent of undecided voters rate the economy as the most important issue in the election.

He says inflation has cooled dramatically since its post-pandemic spike to 9.1 percent in June 2022 .

Zelizer says the Consumer Price Index dropped to 2.5 percent in August , low enough that a Federal Reserve rate cut is widely expected this month .

To round up and detain 150,000 people of Japanese descent in 1942 required dozens of assembly points and 10 full-scale internment camps.

At present ICE has 20,000 employees and it is believed that this number is inadequate even to cope with border crossers.

Trump ’s most dangerous tendencies concern flouting the law and using the power of the state against his opponents.