One reason I'm optimistic is that the Democratic response to Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race is exactly what I've wanted from the party for the past three and a half weeks. Democrats suddenly seem decisive. They seem ready to end the drama immediately. I'm heartened that so many Democrats rapidly coalesced around Kamala Harris after Biden's endorsement, everyone from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to all fifty state party chairs. (Shame on Barack Obama for holding out, but his donor-fueled wish for an open contest is out of step with the majority of the party, and won't be relevant.) This is a party that seems ready to move forward, after weeks of spinning its wheels. I'm not surprised that Biden dropped out, but I'm pleasantly surprised that Democrats knew how to manage the transition.
And it's clear to me that this is good because so many Democratic voters are suddenly hopeful. It's being reported that the Harris campaign received $70 million in small-dollar donations as of 1:00 A.M. This excitement could be contagious. It could spread to swing voters. The polls mostly say that Harris does no better against Donald Trump than Biden does, but that could change, at least momentarily, because of this excitement. After that, Harris will have to grind out a win. But Biden seemed to have no potential for improvement -- voters knew him and Trump, and nothing seemed to change their opinions of either. But while there's absolutely a chance that voters will sour on Harris after this moment, she has the potential to build on her base of support, in a way that Biden couldn't.
It's been impossible for me to ignore the frustration of some voters who are either anti-Trump or gettable, like the guy I saw on the Upper West Side of Manhattan a week or so ago who was wearing an ANYONE UNDER 80 / 2024 T-shirt. (Yes, I know -- Trump is barely under eighty. But I assume anyone who wears this shirt doesn't know that.)
Then there's Lauren Hough, the author of the memoir Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing. She's a military veteran, a lesbian, a former bartender, bouncer, and cable installer, a victim of childhood sexual abuse. She's a writer now, but she's not highly educated or credentialed. She lives in Austin and hangs out with musicians and barflies, not elitists. She's in her forties. She loathes Trump. This was her take a couple of days ago:
I see a lot of younger people who just can't believe Democrats were going to go trhrough with a Biden candidacy. Rightly or wrongly, they saw Biden as self-evidently unable to do the job. Here's Kat Abughazaleh, a twentysomething former Media Matters writer who makes anti-Fox, anti-GOP, and anti-Religious Right videos. She posted this just after the June 27 debate:
Like many people who watched last night's debate, I have one question for Democrats: What the hell do you think you're doing? Now, before anyone attacks me for helping Trump or sabotaging the Democrats, I'd like to say I'm making this video because I want the Democrats to win. I care a lot more about that than preserving tradition. At some point, liberal politicos decided that seniority and decorum matter more than actually winning races and passing bills. We as voters deserve better. And it's not like the DNC is some helpless baby. They could have had an actual primary with actual candidates. And they should have. A lot of us voted for Joe Biden expecting him to be a one-term president. But then he changed his mind. So we all have to deal with the consequences to prop up the ego of an 80-year-old man.This is harsh, but it's a perspective shared by many people under the age of fifty -- and I mean people who hate Trump and want him gone forever. Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party were at risk of losing these voters this year. They weren't winning them back. And now these voters are gettable again.
I don't share the perspective of some Democrats I've encountered on social media who seem to think the election is already won. Harris is not an Obama-level political talent. America is sexist and racist. Republicans and the Republican-dominated courts could make trouble for Democrats. (I don't believe the courts will knock her off the ballot -- they know that making it impossible for a major party's candidate to run would be taking us into Putin territory, and I think they still want to seem as if they're operating withing the guardrails. On the other hand, I could imagine the courts ruling that Harris can't use money collected by the Biden-Harris campaign, even though her right to use that money seems to be a matter of settle campaign finance law.) Nevertheless, I feel hopeful. Millions of voters hated the choice they had, and now one party has responded to that frustration. That should count for a lot.
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