The nation’s political class is at a fever pitch with less than one week to go until Election Day. Its denizens are convinced that American self-government’s fate hinges on whether President Trump defeats Joe Biden to win a second term as president. They disagree only on whether a Trump victory is good or bad for the United States.

Anticipation is especially acute among Trump’s critics in the Democratic Party and America’s educated elite, many of whom believe that the president and his Republican allies in Congress pose an existential threat to individual equality and rights. And they think that a Trump-Republican victory next week will inevitably undermine these central pillars of self-government by installing an undemocratic minority-rule regime.