Vice President Kamala Harris’s first rally speech yesterday as the presumed Democratic nominee for president was remarkable for several reasons. In Milwaukee, which was a special fuck-you to the savage Republican National Convention that was there last week, you could watch in real time as she grew into the role of nominee, moving from slightly stilted delivery to full-on warrior preacher by the end, latching onto the chanted phrase that will no doubt become her slogan: “We’re not going back.” That’s a perfect distillation of the significance of this moment in electoral and American history. The audience there lost their goddamn minds with glee.
Until this past weekend, there was a feeling of dutiful drudgery to the presidential election, along with a frisson of dread, for me and pretty much everyone I know. As I said over on the Threads, we understood the assignment: vote for Joe Biden to be re-elected president with the full knowledge that there was a very real chance that Vice President Kamala Harris would have to take over at some point. And it made sense, even to someone like me who wanted Biden to withdraw. Biden has been a strong president, a consequential one, and, even if I disagreed with him on some things (like Israel’s war on Gaza), the man had a hell of a record to run on. But, goddamn, it sucked to have to worry that every time he made an appearance, we had to just be thankful he didn’t stumble too much.
