A Week is a Long Time in Politics

In the US, it is a lifetime.

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We may be witnessing one of the most impressive turnarounds in US political history.

A week ago, Trump was at the apex of the political firmament. His star was shining bright for all to see, so much so that the talk at the Republican Convention was of a landslide victory in November. Trump was so confident that he didn't feel the need and/or listen to his more politically astute advisers to choose a balanced VP pick to reach out to undecided swing voters. In a typical act of brash overconfidence, he went the other way and chose a mini-Trump whose flip-flopping would make the clearest heads spin in horror. How can you possibly go from calling Trump "America's Hitler" and "cultural heroin" to proclaiming that he is the best thing since sliced bread? Hannah Arendt, the US-German political philosopher who fled from Nazi Germany before the second world war, famously wrote referring to the effect of power on people :

"In essence, it is not power that corrupts; it is the aura of power. ”Its glamorous trappings, more than power itself, attracts.”

Whilst President Biden ran for President in 2020 "to save the soul of the nation", J.D. Vance is not afraid to sell his soul to the aura of Trumpism.

Exactly one week after Trump's acceptance speech in Milwaukee, his star is quickly fading, and he is struggling to contain the Kamala Harris whirlwind that, against all expectations, is sweeping through not only the Democratic Party but the country at large.

Within minutes of Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, Vice-President Harris leapt into action and made over one hundred phone calls in one afternoon to secure her nomination as a candidate at the top of the ticket. In four days, she has made four important speeches, broken all fundraising records, and initiated a level of support and energy not seen since Barack Obama in 2007 / 2008.

She has single-handedly turned the race upside down and reframed the main arguments as the past versus the future, the prosecutor versus the convicted felon and the old geriatric man versus the young, energetic woman.

Harris's vision for the future is one of hope and optimism, based on Biden's presidency and its achievements, which are the envy of the world. No other country notably has emerged from the pandemic in such a robust economic position. Trump persists in his portrayal of America as a country in ruins, recycling his phrase from his inaugural address, "American Carnage," which provoked a famous rebuttal from President George W. Bush: "That was some....." Trump revels in tearing the country down and calling it "stupid".

Once again we can turn to Hannah Arendt, who despite having experienced first-hand the horrors of Nazi Germany forcing her to flee to the US, always considered the US a safe haven and an example for the world, despite the Watergate scandal under President Nixon and the tragedy of the Vietnam War that she referenced in her very last publication, a speech she prepared to celebrate the bicentennial of 1976 in which she stated:

"While we now slowly emerge from under the rubble of the events of the last few years, let us not forget these years of aberration lest we become wholly unworthy of the glorious beginnings two hundred years ago. When the facts come home to us, let us try at least to make them welcome. Let us try not to escape into utopias—images, theories, or sheer follies. For it was the greatness of this Republic to give due account, for the sake of freedom, to the best in men and to the worst”

It is no surprise that Harris has picked up on the principle of freedom, which is central to American democracy. Four days that have changed the course of this race and only another one hundred and two to go until the people decide which vision of the future they want to choose.