The outcome of next week’s midterm elections will determine much of importance to our nation and our countrymen. Those we elect to 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and to the majority in the U.S. Senate will shape domestic priorities, our foreign policy and our national security. The results of 36 gubernatorial contests and countless state legislative, mayoral, county supervisors, even school boards will affect everything from abortion to zoos.

So, what matters most in this week before these elections are decided?

If the “issues” polls are correct, most Americans are focused on the corrosive effect record inflation is having on our paychecks. It’s not just “pain at the pump.” It’s everything — from the cost of food and shelter to the price of heating our homes and all other essential goods and services. As James Carville put it for Bill Clinton: “It’s the economy, stupid!”

A close second (first, in some polls), an unprecedented nationwide crimewave endangering every man, woman and child from sea to shining sea. None of us are safe in our homes or businesses, or while in a car or on public transportation. Ask any Supreme Court justice or Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of the speaker of the House, or the suburban mom who had her car hijacked in daylight, at gunpoint — with her infant daughter in a car seat. Nearly every federal, state and local law enforcement agency in our country is understaffed. “Defund the Police” candidates should be unelectable.

Third, in less than two years, our nonexistent southern border has allowed over 3.5 million people from more than 150 countries to invade America. Among them have come tens of thousands of hardened criminals, wanted terror suspects, unaccompanied minors bound for sexual slavery and millions of doses of Communist Chinese fentanyl — which have already killed nearly 150,000 Americans. This tidal wave of humanity has immediately impacted border states. But no part of this nation is impervious to egregious consequences of this humanitarian catastrophe. Opponents of securing our borders should never hold office.

And then there are the other things: Should we reform the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI leadership to ensure our law enforcement agencies provide “equal justice” for all Americans? Shouldn’t the shutdown of America’s energy independence and use of our Strategic Petroleum Reserves for partisan political purposes be unlawful? Should elitist demands for government to eliminate transportation powered by internal combustion engines be acceptable?

Do polls reflecting parental anger at government and teachers unions’ collusion on indoctrinating children with phony, anti-white racism, gender transitions (with proper pronouns!) and revisionist history mean nothing? “Green Weenies” and anti-parent candidates do not represent us.

Finally, a matter rarely surveyed: U.S. national security. The readiness of our armed forces to deter war — and win if we must fight — should be an existential question. Yet, other than veterans or those of us with family members who serve as soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen or Marines on active duty, the pollsters apparently don’t care.

Should there be accountability for the disastrous August 2021 defeat in Afghanistan? Should abandoning our ally, Israel, and ignoring threats posed by Xi Jinping — now dictator for life in Communist China — or the naked aggression of Vladimir Putin affect how we vote?

Will those we elect next week help make us — and our Asian allies — less vulnerable to perils posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons? Must we face a future where women are gunned down by Tehran’s ayatollahs while they acquire nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them?

God-fearing, conservative Americans who want to preserve our constitutional republic know the answers to the questions above. Vote with them next week.

COPYRIGHT 2022 OLIVER L. NORTH AND DAVID GOETSCH