Years ago when Jim Hunt was thrashing Jesse Helms in his Senate race, Arthur Finkelstein dropped a poll on the table, lifted both hands in the air in front of him, palms open.

“There’re two kinds of elections.”

He waved one palm: “There’re issue elections.” He waved the other open palm: “And character elections. This is a character election.”

I’d never laid eyes on a character election before but, before the smoke cleared, I learned character matters more than issues – people will vote against a crook or liar even when they agree with him on issues.

Last week, at lunch, a friend asked, “Trump was dead-on-right about tax cuts, tariffs, the Wall – how on earth did he lose to Biden?”

“He made it a character election. People who agreed with him on taxes voted against him because he lied.”

To Trump lies were tools. And he convinced a lot of Republicans lies were a good tool to use. And they used the tool last fall. And landed in another character election. And paid the price.