Election

When I was a younger man, I found myself on the receiving end of a good bit of unsolicited advice for surviving as a member of the right — tried and true lessons in how to stay interesting without getting canceled or killed. Read all the archives of the Weekly Standard. Avoid talk of Israel, IQ and the Glorious Revolution. Don’t drink too much. Don’t drink too little. Take up smoking. And, most importantly, don’t involve yourself with any organizations predicated on white identity. I have never been very good at following sound advice, which is why I joined “White Dudes for Harris” on Monday. The existence of such an affinity group is remarkable in itself.

I am forty, I’m perpetually single, I have no kids, and I own three cats. No, this isn’t a reboot of Bridget Jones’s Diary; it’s my life. And I also happen to be a lifelong conservative who votes in every election.   I’m not so sensitive that I thought J.D. Vance’s now-widely circulated comments about “cat ladies” from 2021 were directed specifically at me — but the words hurt all the same. Like so many women in my shoes, I did not set out to be single and childless forever to make a hallow political gesture. I dreamed of a family, true love and the white picket fence. But thus far, that simply hasn’t been the course mapped out for me by the Author of all things.

The support for Kamala Harris within the Democratic Party springs eternal. Last night, activist Shannon Watts organized a “white women for Kamala Harris” Zoom call, surpassing 100,000 attendants with guests such as pop star P!nk and Megan Rapinoe in attendance. Voting for Harris is now being called an act of “self-love,” according to actress Connie Britton. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, also on the call, echoed her thoughts, sharing a slightly disturbing anecdote of her and Britton drinking toad venom to recover from seasickness. “We survived,” said Gillibrand. “Connie’s an extraordinary role model for women and girls and people everywhere.” Because she is a woman, Harris will be a better listener and empath, Britton claimed.

Former first lady Melania Trump plans on releasing her first memoir this fall, entitled Melania. The book is slated to tell “a powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has carved her own path, overcome adversity and defined personal excellence,” according to her office. The book will be published by Skyhorse Publishing and will have two versions, a “Collector’s Edition” signed by the former first lady and a “Memoir Edition.” The fifty-four-year-old has kept relatively quiet about her time in the White House and life as a whole, and opted not to speak at the RNC, marking a departure from tradition for candidates’ wives. She did appear onstage with her husband at the end of his remarks and watched other speakers from the dais on the final day.

The question going into Joe Biden’s address to the national from the Oval Office tonight was: will he, having announced that he is dropping out of the race to be president, will he also resign the presidency now? Or would he announce that he was sticking it out till 11:59 a.m. on January 20, 2025? Given the perks of the office, and the appetites of Dr. Jill Biden, I thought it likely that he would choose to stick it out. I am often wrong in my political predictions, but about this I was right. In his sad, at times maudlin, painfully mendacious eleven-minute speech, Joe Biden told the American people that he wasn’t going anywhere. Circumstances may intervene to change that. All of us are subject to the sudden intervention of fate.

The events of the last few days have made incontrovertible something that candid observers have known for some time now: that the word “democracy” in the maw of Democrats bears the same relation to really existing democracy that the Russian word “Pravda” bore to really existing truth in the Soviet era. If you look it up, you’ll see that “Pravda” means “truth.” At least, that’s what the dictionary says it means. But anyone on the ground, experiencing the full-court press of Soviet disinformation knew that the newspaper Pravda deployed the word “truth” only to undermine it. It was necessary to pay lip service to the charade.

Tonight on a series of Zoom calls, a majority of DNC delegates endorsed Kamala Harris, helping her secure the required number to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.  The lesson? Destroying democracy is bad, unless it's done over a video call. In which case, it’s totally fine. Earlier, at the now-Harris campaign headquarters in Delaware, Kamala read from a teleprompter before making an awkward phone call to Joe Biden. I was waiting for the part in the movie when the record scratches, the frame freezes and then the narrator Harris says, “Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.”  The fifty-nine-year-old’s haphazard road to the general election is the best scenario she could have hoped for given her shortcomings.

It’s odd how things that have been widely predicted and even widely anticipated can nevertheless occur with an emotional thunderclap. I suppose death would qualify as an example. Joe Biden’s announcement on X earlier today that he would not be seeking reelection certainly does.  The announcement had its curious aspects. For one thing, it came from his personal account, not the account of POTUS. Indeed, for a moment that made me wonder whether it was for real. A glance at the internet assured me that it was. Most of the letter is political thru-text.