{"id":2104,"date":"2024-07-25T10:58:24","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T14:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2024-07-25T10:58:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T14:58:24","slug":"what-a-difference-a-few-days-can-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/what-a-difference-a-few-days-can-make\/","title":{"rendered":"What A Difference A Few Days Can Make"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If the header image didn’t make it obvious enough, I am Getting Political again. You have been warned.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0Saturday night, July 20th<\/sup>, I was about as down as I\u2019ve been in years. I just\u00a0couldn\u2019t believe this country was about to elect Donald Trump president again, but I couldn\u2019t see any way it wouldn\u2019t<\/i> happen unless something major changed. And this change did not appear to be coming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And a video Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released the day before made it sound like the Democrats were screwed\u00a0no matter what we tried to do next. She said the wealthy donors who wanted Biden out also wanted Harris out, and I figured the optics of shoving aside the Black VP to install two white candidates on the ticket would deal the death blow to any hopes of a strong Democratic turnout in November. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, self<\/i>, I thought. Snap out of it.<\/i> You\u2019ve got a book coming out. Let\u2019s just try to enjoy these last few Trump-free months before we all have to return to the hell we thought we escaped<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I might also have thought\u00a0Man, why do I have to be a Democrat? Why do my personal ideals have to align with the party that couldn\u2019t manage a fart at a chili-eating contest? This sucks.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

That was Saturday. I already talked about what happened on Sunday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But a few days later, the change in the country\u2019s mood\u00a0has been so profound I\u2019m still pinching myself to be sure it\u2019s real.\u00a0How did we go so fast from Game Over to Game On?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, Democrats are rallying around Kamala Harris\u00a0like she\u2019s the second coming of Barack Obama. Because it kind of feels that way. She\u2019s young (compared to who she’s up against, at least), vibrant, positive, and inspirational. I don\u2019t think AOC was necessarily wrong in what she said about wealthy donors wanting Harris gone, but I strongly suspect\u00a0Nancy Pelosi, the person who finally convinced Biden he simply couldn\u2019t win<\/a>, may have also talked some sense into these people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And Joe Biden has swung\u00a0from being portrayed as a doddering, confused old egomaniac to a selfless hero who voluntarily walked away from power because it was the best thing for his country. I think Biden\u2019s fundamentally a good man who\u2019s been a good President, and it\u2019s heartening to see his reputation restored.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the best part of this has been watching the Trump campaign absolutely flounder and stomp their feet about how unfair<\/i> this all is. Waiting until after the Republican National Convention for Biden to announce his withdrawal\u00a0was absolute genius; Republicans\u00a0wasted time and money attacking a candidate who is now gone, and Trump’s VP pick looks worse and more clueless by the day.\u00a0Good, strategic decisions? In my<\/em> Democratic party? Yes please, and more of this, thank you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All of a sudden, Trump<\/i> looks like the doddering, confused old egomaniac. (Which he is.) So far, the attacks his campaign has manufactured against Harris are weak racist crap that didn\u2019t work against Obama and won\u2019t work against Harris either. Or they\u2019re so appallingly sexist (Harris has no real stake in the country because she\u2019s a childless cat lady who doesn\u2019t have biological children!<\/i>) that even generally nonpolitical celebrities like Jennifer Aniston\u00a0are\u00a0pissed off enough\u00a0to speak\u00a0out against them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the attempts to slut-shame Harris, get real. Trump has children by three different women, one of whom he knocked up while he was still married to someone else. If you\u2019re supporting a serial adulterer, sex offender, and Epstein crony for President, you don\u2019t get to clutch your pearls about Kamala Harris\u2019s sex life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, I suspect all the people who helped Trump run an unsettlingly effective campaign in 2016 are either in prison\u00a0or long gone from his circles. Good.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t mean to be overconfident. A lot could happen between now and November. Look at everything that\u2019s happened since that dreadful debate, which wasn\u2019t even a full month ago as of this writing. But at least a Trump victory, while still quite possible, no longer feels like a foregone conclusion. And if the Democrats lose in November, I\u2019m at least happy they tried to change course instead of employing their usual \u201cOur ship\u2019s heading right for an iceberg? Eh, I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll all work out\u201d approach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion: Please register to vote if you haven\u2019t already.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the header image didn’t make it obvious enough, I am Getting Political again. You have been warned. On\u00a0Saturday night,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,73,71],"tags":[82,69,148,147,149],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2106,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}