Harris, Trump, and the American Backlog

Since July 21st — the day that President Biden announced that he would be ending his campaign for a second term and that he was endorsing Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate — there’s been what media outlets and pundits have identified as an unprecedented surge in enthusiasm and participation in the political process. Countless new campaign volunteers, hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to the Harris campaign, and — perhaps more noteworthy than either of those things — a groundswell of optimism not only about the campaign itself but also about the future direction of the nation.

The unprecedented nature of this support is due in part, it would seem, to the relief that the voting public seemed to feel a sense of relief from no longer having to choose between two elderly white men. (Of course, that framing of the race implies that there somehow was parity between the two candidates; nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, one candidate is a twice-impeached …