Children of the Candy Corn

There’s just one week to go until the election. We know that by looking at the calendar. But we can also feel it, as nearly every other topic has been pushed out of the national headlines, and out of our personal headspace. The twists and turns of the presidential race occupy so much of our psyche that they ooze into every part of our lives. When my son said he wanted a Halloween costume that everyone would recognize, I suggested he dress as one of Hillary Clinton’s emails. There’s no doubt that our obsession with this ultimate reality show is a hazard to our mental health. But is it also a hazard to our relationships? The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman looks at a new book that examines the impact of elections when it comes to our neighbors. “Politics can become a poisonous influence in our lives. Like a tacky filter on Instagram, it can color our perceptions too radically; it can play too large a role in the construction of our identities and social lives. It fills us with unwanted passionate intensity. Perhaps, somewhere in the territory of the self, a border marks the place where our lives as citizens end and our sovereignty as individuals begins. If such a border exists, though, it doesn’t feel very secure.” You have a Clinton sign on your lawn. He has a Trump sign on his. Can you get along? (Or to put it another way: Aren’t there enough reasons to be irritated by your neighbors without adding politics to the mix?)

+ We’re even divided when it comes to Halloween candy. It seems fitting that “the candy of choice in the most number of states this year turned out to be the polarizing Halloween staple — Candy corn.” (2016 feels more like an Everlasting Gobstopper.)