On Tuesday, during Tim Walz’s debut speech as Kamala Harris’s running mate, he thanked Harris for “bringing back the joy.”
It wasn’t until then that I fully realized just how much joy has been generating the electricity behind Harris’s presidential candidacy. Not because of some specific stance that Harris has taken — she isn’t articulating policy positions that differ substantially from President Biden’s. She is, however, allowing herself to be the vessel for pent-up liberal energy.
I underestimated how much soul damage Democratic voters had suffered over the past three and a half years — not in the main because of the Biden administration, but because of the seemingly endless culture wars — and how that damage had jelled into a form of electoral depression.
The movement for Black lives peaked and then waned while the cultural backlash to it (and to so-called wokeness) became a cottage industry. Police reform in the form of federal legislation not only failed, but the idea of it also became radioactive. Federal voting rights legislation stalled and many states rushed to enact new voter restrictions.
Around the country, various states sought to restrict L.G.B.T.Q. rights, stifle the teaching of Black history and curtail the freedom of protesters.
The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and dismantled affirmative action in college admissions.
On top of all that was a war in Gaza — yes, supported by the Biden administration — that many young progressives in particular saw as unconscionable.
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