From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: Elections are fights, settled by voters. This one is no exception.

For our upcoming look at political institutions and elections.

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It's election season, peak time for the power of negative thinking.

With voters making their decisions about what to do when the polls open in October — just a month from now — politicians aren’t talking about solving problems. They’re all about their disagreements. They’re not after what they have in common. They're chasing the differences between them and their opponents.

That's why you're not hearing appeals to people who support law enforcement and also believe Black lives matter. You’re hearing appeals that make those principles seem incompatible and that, instead, hide them behind social media hashtags used to mark our political tribes.

The same approach to politics explains why it took so long to get elected leaders to put masks on — to stymie the coronavirus and to encourage the rest of us to do the same. A false choice between community health and personal freedom turned protective facewear into a political marker. That faded, at least in the ranks of the elected class, when the coronavirus began its summer surge in May and June. He almost never does it publicly, but even President Donald Trump wears a mask sometimes. But the divisions remain; you can find them at your nearest grocery store or gas station.

Even the way you vote has become a dividing line in Texas.

Other states have solved this one, holding secure elections without impeding their voters. Texas isn’t there yet, and arguments over the security of absentee voting and the safety of in-person voting during a pandemic found new fuel in the president’s attacks on voting by mail. He does it himself, even while saying expanded voting by mail increases chances of fraud.