Flooding the Zone with Joy

On the publication day of my first book, I reckon with what has shifted and what has held fast in the span of time since I delivered the manuscript

When I submitted my book manuscript last March, I felt confident that my near-constant engagement with the devastatingly consequential 2024 presidential election meant I could make fairly educated guesses about where we might be 5 months later, when my book hit the shelves: today, August 13th.

Turns out, I couldn’t have even guessed three weeks ago where we would be today. 

I would not have envisioned President Biden being urged to withdraw from the race, nor would I have foreseen his patriotic decision to actually do so, relinquishing a potential four more years of the awesome (and, thanks to our nightmare Supreme Court, terrifying) power of the U.S. presidency. Nor would I have predicted that Biden’s wholehearted endorsement of Kamala Harris would unleash a movement that would leave the Democratic party feeling imbued with…joy. 

You know who else didn’t see that coming? Donald Trump. I’ve always found it slightly unsavory to talk about old dogs behind their backs, but it seems that Trump is all out of tricks; and can merely bark incessantly and chase his own tail in a dizzying effort to regain the spotlight. But before we get to Trump’s attempts at attention-seeking (see yesterday’s Elon Musk interview, delivered while plopped in front of a bizarre portrait of himself clad in fusty tennis gear), let’s appreciate what has unfurled in the past three weeks. 

In its lead-up, most people projected that—were Biden to withdraw—chaos would ensue, with ‘Democrats in Disarray’ teed up to consume the news clear through November. Instead, the transition was seamless. Harris has since run an arguably flawless campaign, bolstered by her phenomenal decision to choose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to run by her side. 

A few other things I would not have predicted last March:

Democrats’ messaging becoming relatively unified; voters across the spectrum throwing their support behind our candidate; AOC and Joe Manchin enthusiastically endorsing the same person for vice-president; Republicans (through a third party) releasing a 900-page blueprint for stripping us of hard-won rights while placing federal institutions under the power of one man; our quadruple-indicted, twice-impeached former president being so bloated with confidence that he chose an amateur trophy as his running mate; RFK Jr. dumping a bear cub in Central Park because he didn’t have time to skin it and eat it; my spending the week leading up to publication live streaming raucous rallies across the country, with Beyoncé contributing the campaign’s theme song; and Snoop Dogg covering the Paris Olympics in an official capacity, calling Martha Stewart to join him so she could explain dressage because Snoop is afraid of horses. Or that he would overcome his fear (in matching outfits with Martha) and dance with a horse. 

And yet, here we are. 

(For what it’s worth, Snoop and Martha enlivening the dressage competition would have been first on my list for possible scenarios. A drastically shifting political climate, releasing giddy progressive activism nationwide? That would have seemed far-fetched.) 

Last weekend, new polls by The New York Times and Siena College, widely considered among the most definitive polls, showed Harris leading Trump by four percent in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Those polls, published less than three weeks after President Biden gracefully passed the baton, show Harris at 50% while Trump is at 46% in each of those crucial swing states. That’s a massive shift from the same poll from July, when Trump was leading Biden by 6 points nationwide among likely voters and 8 points among registered voters. Harris has not merely closed the gap, she is winning the states she would need to secure the electoral college. In Pennsylvania alone, her favorability has skyrocketed by 10 percentage points among registered voters. 

None of this is meant to incite complacency. Voters still prefer Trump when it comes to handling the economy and immigration, two huge issues for a lot of voters. Which is ludicrous, and worthy of a quick public service reminder:

Trump left office with the worst jobs record since the Great Depression. The guy managed to bankrupt a casino. He doesn’t know how to run a major economy, and he’s proven it. Any positive economic trends that happened pre-COVID began under President Obama. Trump inherited that economy and, as he does, squandered it.

The Biden-Harris administration took Trump’s migraine of an economy and swiftly passed the American Rescue Plan, leading to skyrocketing job growth. They also passed the bipartisan infrastructure law, CHIPS act (that created more jobs), and the Inflation Reduction Act. Job growth has been historically strong and inflation finally down to its target 3%.

As for immigration, we cannot let it escape the conversation that Trump killed the strongest bipartisan border security deal in decades. Why? Because he NEEDED it to remain a problem so he would have fuel for campaign attacks. MVP Harris has already announced that she would sign it if she wins.

The turbocharged Harris-Walz ticket stormed through five battleground states last week, beginning with a boisterous rally in front of 12,000 in Philly on Tuesday. Then onward to Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. In both Detroit and Glendale, the rallies drew crowds of 15,000 people.

The Harris Walz campaign is on fire, and they’re organized. In Nevada, they have 13 campaign offices; Trump has 1. In Pennsylvania, they have 36; Trump has 3. In Georgia, they have 24 to Trump’s 1. The Dems’ fervor, record-breaking grassroots numbers, and tightly run campaign has made Trump even more off-kilter than usual, with reports addressing his irate, grumpy behavior.

Trump is self-destructing:

The unraveling began with a stance that comes naturally: unadulterated racism. He appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists, where, thrown into a tizzy by a question about DEI, he stated he assumed Harris was Indian “until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black.”

Then came his stream-of-consciousness Mar-a-Lago news conference, an hour plus cyclone of deluded claims. It was earmarked by some real stunners—including “the people of January 6th were treated very unfairly;” asserting that nobody was killed that day, and stating there were more people at his insurrectionist rally than at MLK Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. When asked about Harris’s impressive turnouts, he angrily retorted “Oh, give me a break…Nobody’s had crowds like I have.”

His exhibits of self-sabotage have also included unhinged texts to high-rolling donors, attacks on popular governors from swing states, and comfortable throwing his running mate under the bus: When asked about Democrats painting the Republican ticket as “weird,” Trump replied: “Not about me. They’re saying that about JD.” 

He remains so flummoxed that he’s now peddling the absurd notion that Harris used artificial intelligence to create images of her monster rally in Detroit outside an airplane hangar—a spectacular vision that many thousands of people witnessed. Dozens of media outlets can attest to the crowd’s size and energy. I live streamed it. Nonetheless, Trump snatched a conspiracy theory from the ferocious dumpster fire of his base, then rushed to Truth Social to insist there was “nobody at the plane,” and that she “A.I.’d it.”   

This is what happens when an egomaniac feels backed into a corner. Once there, he cannot open his mouth without unfounded blame and lunacy spewing forth. Don’t worry, Mr. Trump. Voters are noticing your antics. And it’s leading to real concerns about electing a hysterical, insecure felon back into our highest office.  

If this momentum continues apace, and even if it doesn’t, he will continue dissembling, then reverting to social media implosions about “CHEATING” and “ELECTION INTERFERENCE.” With his resurgence onto X, after more than three-and-a-half years, his freewheeling rage will become more pronounced; his disintegration more prevalent. As many have noted, he’s not just running for president, he’s running for his own freedom. He’s scared. And he should be. 

Though so much has occurred that has been wildly unpredictable, there are still messages I try to impart in Shameless that still ring true. The manner in which Trump or his sycophants behave must not be normalized, even if received in bulk. Our government does not have to be filled with chaos agents. It’s incumbent on us to reject their dysfunction, call out their lies, and elect reasonable people who are looking toward the future.

We have that vibrant, authentic alternative at the top of our ticket. Harris and Walz are flooding the zone with joy. Let’s savor these vibes as long as we can, while staying active and energized in our battle to preserve democracy.