Dear Reader,

At the end of a criminal trial, as everyone knows, counsel for the parties stride to the lectern, look earnestly into the eyes of the twelve ordinary Americans pressed into service as jurors, and beseech them to acquit or convict, as the case may be. This is the lawyers’ opportunity to marshal the evidence or note the absence of it, as the case may be. This is their last chance to make the case for their side before the twelve retire to deliberate and vote. Cases are won and lost on the strength or weakness of this final phase of the trial: the closing argument.

Notwithstanding Donald Trump’s increasingly unhinged calls to lock up his rival, democratic elections are not criminal trials. Nonetheless, it’s striking how often pundits and press outlets lately refer to the final messages from Donald Trump and Joe Biden as their “closing arguments.” I suppose they are in a way, though in politics, unlike in a court of law, the advocates are bound by little more than their own sense of honor, decency, and instinct for persuasion.

Many people are remarking upon the incoherence and illogic of Trump’s closing argument. Is the argument, let’s make America great again? That doesn’t make much sense if you’ve been the president for four years. Let’s make America great again, again? Perhaps the argument is a mix of warnings about tax increases and socialism and Antifa and the behavior of Hunter Biden. I’m biased, of course, but none of it seems to be sticking. Part of the reason is that much of Trump’s message is muddled with grievance, hate-mongering, boorishness, and self-pity.