 Hillary Clinton gestures next to Donald Trump during a presidential debate last month at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. (Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Every week, I answer a question from Monday’s Act Four live chat in the Wednesday installment of this newsletter. You can read the transcript of Monday’s chat here and submit questions for the Nov. 7 chat here. This week, a reader wants me to compare two different scary things: Good luck to Jack Skellington if he expects this Halloween to outspook this campaign season. Does it seem like THIS particular cycle has sucked up more available oxygen than usual? Since I don’t have comprehensive data on the balance of news coverage in this election compared with previous elections, I’m hesitant to speak definitively about whether the election has eaten up more space than usual by that metric. Certainly, previous races have felt fairly consequential, especially the 2008 election, which stood out for the historic nature of then-Sens. Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s candidacies as well as the surprise of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s choice for the Republican vice-presidential slot, and took up more space in my brain because I helped cover the conventions as part of National Journal’s team. But this one does seem to be occupying quite a lot of psychic space, even if I can’t quantify it. And since you compared the election to Halloween, I suspect one of the many reasons the race is engaging so many of us so deeply is that it’s a contest so sharply defined by fear. Many of Donald Trump’s supporters seem to fear other people, among them immigrants, African Americans and Muslims, and the prospect of an America in which they see themselves displaced. I think even supporters of Hillary Clinton who are animated by her policy proposals also feel a great deal of fear about what Trump’s rise, along with the increasing presence of white nationalism, anti-Semitism and sexism in our politics, means for the country going forward. Observers from both parties worry about the rise of fake news and an inability to reach consensus on basic facts, or even mechanisms for determining what is true. I think some of these fears have better basis in facts than others, and people are acting out some of these fears in ugly and unfortunate ways. But whatever their origins, the anxieties awakened by this presidential election run deeper than any scary movie, and they’re unlikely to end on Nov. 8. | 
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