I really don't know how to describe this

We all remember 2008. Barack Obama swept in like a force of nature, speaking about hope and "yes we can" to a nation mired in two seemingly endless wars. It was a nation which was still scarred by the al-Qaeda terror attacks. The world, during the campaign, descended into a financial meltdown, which would take years to recover from. And here was this skinny guy from Chicago, a Black man, becoming the right person at the right time. It was destined, it seemed.

And we all remember 2020. Again, the world was wracked by chaos. It was infected by a virus the effects of which hadn't been seen in a century. America, the world's indispensable nation, was being run into the ground by a man completely unsuited to be its chief executive. The international order, which the United States had built, was crumbling. And here came Pres. Obama's wingman, Joe Biden, promising a return to normalcy, a return to decency. And we latched onto him, as those drowning latch onto a life preserver. Again, it seemed, it was destined.

This year is different. This year something fundamental has changed.

Presidents Obama and Biden were not able to rewrite the narrative. Pres. Obama was saddled with a Republican congress for most of his eight years, as the "whitelash" roared out to put that uppity Negro and his family back in their places. And Pres. Biden violated the cardinal rule of American presidents: You never end a war and expect the media to not pillory you for it. In many ways, this country did not deserve either of them. They didn't fail the country; the country failed them. As did their party, which ran away from Pres. Obama, and mounted a putsch to drive Pres. Biden off the ticket.

But Pres. Biden, God keep him, has proven to be this century's supreme politician. Not only did he choose the perfect time to drop out of the race, but did so in such a way that he engineered his replacement with his vice president, Kamala Harris.

And now here we are.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Rightly or wrongly, there was sullenness in the electorate. The "double-haters" were real. I still think Joe Biden would have won re-election. But how close would it have been? How much would the media have placed its entire hand on the scale in search for "excitement"? The move to jettison him from the ticket was done in part to get that excitement which sells Viagra and whatever other pharmaceutical will fulfill all of your dreams if it doesn't kill you first. Like a seasoned captain facing headwinds, Pres. Biden tacked to what he thought was the safest course.

His decision to drop out of the race and fully back Vice President Harris will be studied for generations of political scholars. But it would have all been for nought if Kamala hadn't been ready.

Boy-o, was she ready. Joe knew it. And yesterday, at her first campaign rally with her newly-selected running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, I could feel it.

This is different.

This is more than the energy we had with Barack Obama.

This is more than the determination we had to get Joe Biden into the White House.

This is a movement of the type we haven't seen since Robert F. Kennedy ran in 1968. This is a movement to fundamentally realign and repair who we are as a society. This is a movement to solidify what has been happening since Bill Clinton's election: a complete resetting of political power in this nation. 

The pearl-clutchers fearfully inveighed that Donald Trump's fascism was the unstoppable future. That they were too strong, too cunning, too ruthless. That Trump would yank America out of the world order it had built and defended for eight decades, and instead throw his lot in with the planet's dictators. They had—and have—no faith in the people of this country.

Instead, what do we have? Vice President Harris' new running mate loudly called our opponents "weird". Such a small word. Such a seemingly anodyne insult. And yet it has upended everything.

A spell has been broken. For most of this century, the extremists have been the driving force in world affairs. From Osama bin Laden to Vladimir Putin, the civilized world has been in reactive mode, stomping out brush fires only to have new ones arise. Democracy had run its course, many said. Nothing is forever.

And then strange things began to happen.

In Turkey, strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost control of Turkish localities to the now-united opposition, weakening his grip on power. In India, strongman Narendra Modi lost scores of seats in parliamentary elections. In Poland, the populist, anti-European Union right lost to the pro-EU center and left. 

And then the two big ones. In the United Kingdom, Labour gained power in a landslide never seen in British politics. And in France, the center and left again united to deny the far right power, after pundits assured us that Marine Le Pen was unstoppable.

Now it's our turn. And the movement Kamala Harris has willed out of almost nothing is something which I haven't seen in my fifty-five years on this earth. It possesses a primal energy, a sense of jubilation. And yes, it's a damned shame that fighting fascism isn't "exciting" enough for voters. But, to paraphrase an imbecile, you go to a general election with the electorate you have, not the one you wish you had. Restarting basic civics education is a task for the coming years, so that voters are inculcated with their responsibilities as citizens in a democracy. However, if for this year we need to have two rock stars in Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to destroy the fascist opposition, then so be it. Whatever we need to do is what we'll do.

And what Vice President Harris has been able to do in two weeks is nothing short of miraculous. Again, there's a destiny in her. The times raise up people who will speak to them, and save the world from peril. That is what we're seeing now.

So, Balz to the Walz for Kamala. Let's fucking do this.

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