For many travelers, flying has become an indignity to endure rather than an experience to enjoy. Seats are more cramped than ever; flight delays are becoming normalized; somehow, airlines have invented an even worse version of Economy. (Welcome to Basic!) Perhaps most unsettling, though, is the unpredictability of other people on board.

For more than 60 years, the Department of Justice has sent its attorneys and staff to polling places across the country to ensure that Americans can vote free of discrimination or intimidation. They’ve watched to see if Black voters were illegally hindered in any way, if those who use a wheelchair or walker could get into facilities, and if those who couldn’t read the ballot for any reason—blindness, lack of English proficiency, or simply not having the skill—had help.

In the first months of Donald Trump’s first term, as one moral outrage followed another, I often found myself repeating, in conversation, a seven-word phrase: Where there’s no bottom, there’s no bottom. However bad things got, they were bound to get worse. That applied above all to Trump, but also to his party, which was fusing with him.
We’ve since seen endless examples of what “no bottom” looks like. The latest is an ad from Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor of Ohio.

In the days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, luminaries of the MAGA movement will gather at Mar-a-Lago to turn their attention to 2028. Speakers will include a Cabinet secretary, the head of the Domestic Policy Council, and several members of Congress. Also present will be Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia strongman who has bragged about spying on Americans and recently called Russian President Vladimir Putin “one of the most peace-loving leaders of our time.

Last weekend, Chaya Raichik, the popular right-wing influencer who goes by Libs of TikTok, made an ominous claim to her nearly 5 million followers on X. “In Minnesota, the USPS offices are inside mosques,” she wrote. “The people who handle mail-in ballots.. What are we doing America.” She reshared a 28-minute-long video of a man circling a brick building in Plymouth, Minnesota, and accosting postal workers inside. “It’s the Islamification of the United States,” the man says.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.
Tuesday’s midterm results could help determine what President Trump’s remaining two years in office will look like. On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to discuss this and more.

Inside a podcast studio at Turning Point USA’s headquarters last month, a former witch sat in a pink velvet armchair, telling Alex Clark about the demon that stalked her house. Even though this self-described witch, known on TikTok as @yourspiritualbigsis, had only ever used her powers for good, she believed that practicing sorcery had made her vulnerable to satanic forces.

In Washington, D.C., voters are thinking more than they usually would about ducks. The most contentious question on the ballot in the nation’s capital this midterm-election cycle is a referendum on foie gras, the extra-fatty liver delicacy made by overfeeding ducks (and sometimes geese) through a tube stuck down their esophagus. Selling foie gras has been banned in New York City, Pittsburgh, California, India, and Brazil; Target won’t stock it. On Tuesday, D.C.