A tectonic shift

What an eventful two weeks.

While JD Vance becoming VP was on my bingo card for this year, Trump’s ear taking a bullet and President Biden dropping out were not.

Yet here we are! And for the first time in many months, I am excited.

What has struck me the most is two-fold:

First, it is the surprise among voters, and presumably many political operators, that Biden actually dropped out. Having spent some time looking at Trump’s “truth social,” it seems even he has had a difficult time comprehending— it draws to mind a quote from Lord of the Rings:

This brings me to the second: Kamala Harris is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, and there is an opportunity to absolutely crush Donald Trump this November.

A giant anchor around Biden’s neck was his age. He’s been unable to escape it since he announced his reelection campaign, no matter how much he tried to pivot or push—particularly since the debate.

With Biden out, age is no longer an issue for Democrats—it’s a problem for Trump now, as he is the oldest candidate in presidential history. Now, unshackled from the anchor, Democrats and Harris are free to shape a new narrative, one focused on all that is good about America: hope, growth, opportunity, and the promise of the future.

If you listen to her first speech as the presumptive nominee from last Sunday in Milwaukee and check out her first campaign ad, you will see this already taking place. This is a campaign about the future. About looking forward, and the possible. There is excitement and enthusiasm right now in a way I haven’t seen in years, particularly among those of my age and younger. It is a massive shift from how people I know, who are either favorable to the Democrats generally or fundamentally opposed to the moral bankruptcy of Trump, view the race. Folks have hope, and perhaps even cautious optimism.

Kamala can draw attention to issues, policies, and, most importantly, a vision for America’s future in a way Biden simply couldn’t. Trump can’t because what Trump is about is grievance and anger.

We are still 15 weeks out from election day. A lot can happen, and a lot can change. I do worry that the moral confusion Trump’s campaign has been sowing has already rooted itself too deeply in this nation’s soil to uproot.

But I also believe Kamala Harris is now America’s best opportunity to course correct, to offer a vision about America, for America, to provide a new myth and story of who we are and what is possible.

We are not going back.

Thanks for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think of Kamala Harris and this year’s election term. And if you liked what I wrote— please share it with a friend!