The big day is upon us, and America’s dress-up scare fest is back in full swing.
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This year, celebrants are shrugging off the ebbing pandemic and defying wallet-sucking inflation to spend big on jack-o’-lanterns, costumes and candy.
This year’s Halloween spending season is expected to hit a record high of $10.6 billion, compared with $10.1 billion in 2021, according to an annual survey conducted for the National Retail Federation.
“Participation in Halloween-related activities will resume to pre-pandemic levels, with 69% of consumers planning to celebrate the holiday this year, up from 65% in 2021 and comparable to 68% in 2019,” the retail group stated in a news release.
Halloween arrives shortly before national and local elections, when voters have politicians on their minds, for better or worse.
In 2016, horror-inspiring latex visages of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were outselling the renderings of Freddy Krueger’s mangled face.
Remember “lock her up”? Online marketplace eBay was selling a costume portraying Clinton in a prison inmate outfit. Online retailer Costumeish was selling “Donald the wall builder” costumes and sold out of a “Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire” Clinton costume, reported the Daily Democrat, a Northern California newspaper.
This year, the most-searched-for costume on Google is “witch,” followed by “Spider-Man,” “Dinosaur” and “Stranger Things.”
Google Trends’ “Frightgeist” ranks the top costumes by search data from around the United States. Politicians didn’t even make the top 100 in Google search results.
As the Nov. 8 midterms approach, our corrosive political environment — and real life — are too frightening for the make-believe world of Halloween.
For me, the scariest monsters are not wearing costumes but rather are the in-the-flesh nightmares: politicians such as America’s No. 1 boogeyman, former President Donald Trump, who has staked his political future on an atrocious big lie and a deadly insurrection.
This Halloween, I cringe as election deniers make violent threats against election workers in the days leading up to the midterms.
“Calls for violence by domestic violent extremists directed at democratic institutions, political candidates, party offices, election events and election workers will likely increase” as the midterms approach, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned in a bulletin issued earlier this year.
Americans are running away screaming from the rants and lies that have hijacked civil discourse on social media, on both sides of the political aisle. We are disgusted by the incessant TV ads pitching images of murderous street violence and accusing political candidates of everything from supporting child molesters to massacring fetuses.
Meanwhile, gun violence has left our cities petrified. Halloween revelry is a luxury many who live in urban areas cannot afford.
In my childhood, it was safe to run up and down the block, trick-or-treating door to door in my neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
Today, there are no treats, only deathly tricks for our kids. They are being shot, maimed and killed on a regular basis, just for trying to stay alive.
Akeem Briscoe, 7, will not be here for the Halloween fun. Akeem was shot to death Wednesday night at his home in Humboldt Park on Chicago’s West Side. He was in the bathroom of his home, washing his hands and getting ready for bed.
Police said a family member told them the boy was in the bathroom when a bullet pierced the window and struck him, according to ABC-7 Chicago. The second grader was shot in front of his mother and two siblings.
The same night, a 15-year-old was shot to death on the South Side.
This Halloween, real-life fear takes center stage. In the wake of Akeem’s death, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and police Superintendent David Brown called a news conference Thursday to brief reporters on the precautions the city is taking to keep Halloween revelers safe — and alive.
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“These two boys should have been in school today, anxiously awaiting a weekend of fun,” Lightfoot said at the news conference. “They should have gone on celebrating every year afterward. Instead, today, two families have been ripped apart. Tragic loss that the families are dealing with, and a city, once again, is mourning the loss of two of our precious young people.”
Already this year, 298 children have been shot, 41 fatally, in Chicago, according to data analyzed by ABC-7 Chicago.
That’s the real horror story.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at [email protected].
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