“In this election, the Democrats have nominated the most extreme and dangerous group of candidates for the House and Senate ever to seek office,” said President Donald Trump last month. “If they win, the greatest legislative body in history will, for the first time ever, be controlled by a communist caucus.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a socialist, explained her mirror-image take on the stakes of this year’s elections: “What we do is we break open the entire political calculus in America — period,” she said Monday at a closed-door fundraiser for Abdul el Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan. “Because if you can win, if Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere. Anywhere.”