So is this competitive fear-mongering of left and the right the future of American politics? Pretty much — unless Gillespie goes down to a resounding loss. Should he scrape a victory in this blue state that Hillary Clinton won — or even lose by a narrow margin — it’ll be a signal that Trump’s red meat strategy is a viable one. Usually, when Republicans have played the race card — say, George H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton ad — they’ve done so somewhat hesitantly for fear of alienating suburban moms and social moderates who connect mostly with the GOP’s economic message. But if Gillespie makes headway with this message — which it seems he is doing given that he has narrowed the gap with Northam considerably in the latest polls — the Republican takeaway will be that their problem in the past wasn’t that they were too aggressive in stoking their red-meat base, but not aggressive enough. A new calculus will prevail where there is much more to be gained than lost by embracing Trumpism.

During the presidential election liberals were nonplussed by Trump’s efforts to tap into a substratum that norms of political decency had till then caused the GOP to merely tap dance around. But they also expected it to self-destruct. Now, however, they are countering with their own brand of demonizing that they are field-testing in Virginia.