Spooky mailbag

Dune sequels, Midnight, and more talk about the Panic of 1873 than you were expecting

No offense to those who enjoy it, but Adult Halloween was always my least favorite time of the year. One of the greatest things about being a parent is finally being able to get out from under that and become just a supervisor at Kid Halloween, walking around while some youths score candy. That’s the reason for the season.

Emma: Given what you have written in the past about the downside of bringing up race in campaign messaging, what do you make of Ian Haney Lopez and Heather McGhee's research that when the left ignores race, Republicans will predictably bring it up—either overtly or as a dog whistle—and split the electorate? Haney Lopez's research in particular seems to suggest that progressive messages ignoring race and just talking about popular policies are actually less effective than messages fusing race and class into a "better for everyone" proposition. Thoughts on the research and this approach?

I like McGhee’s book a lot, but I find the dialogue around “race-class narrative” …