We didn’t, Joe: President Biden has withdrawn from the presidential race. In 2020, Joe did sterling work managing the inheritance of the Trump administration, but for weeks there’s been a fretful question mark over his ability to win reelection. More broadly, the past few months have seen an American political system marred by an escalating WTF-ness that veered between alarming severity (the legitimate assassination attempt) and pure farce (the fist pump straight after).
All the while, as rumors of Kamala Harris’s potential presidential bid swirled, the internet stirred, and memes rained down.
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I don’t think you need memes decoded, but here are some highlights. “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” “The wheels in the bus go round and round.” An alarming fixation on “what can be, unburdened by what has been.” The slow pan of her clutching binoculars and waving wistfully.** **The yin and yang of “I love good news, love good news!” and “Do not come. Do not come.” Dancing next to the procession of kids and the trigger-happy xylophone infant. “Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, maybe chop a little thyme.” Momala. The high priestess of summer 2024, Charli XCX, decreed “kamala IS brat,” the kind of endorsement that makes the whole sodding race feel sewn up; shall we just get our coats and go home? There’s also currently a raft of emerging memes about her future running mate mirroring the pale, stale, male-ness we’re so used to from the White House (with the notable exception of my boy Barack).
I’m wondering how the vice president and her team feel about the viral-ity of her joy rather than her harder-hitting policies. (They do seem to be embracing the Brat thing.) We’re well-versed in her humor and her quirks, but I wonder if she represents more assurance for swing voters that were turning off Biden. Biden felt like triage for Trump, Trump felt like conservative revenge for Obama, Obama felt hopeful. For a long time, the political systems both sides of the pond have lacked a sense of change, of renewal, of wonder, of daring. They have been about sensible strategies (we do need those), but lacked the tart taste of possibility itself, lacked a shift towards something brighter.
The vice president is sharp and crisp, she beams (in all senses of the word), and I hope she’s got time to maneuver her budding spring in a staunchly autumnal system. Obama already proved to us that the most serious job on the planet can be stirred through with genuine charisma. A presidency will always be a serious matter, but Vice President Harris appears to be the first candidate in American history to secure our nom-meme-nation. I hope she gets joy over the line.