I guess I basically missed the [entire summer]…
I traveled the wide, wide world and came back to this…
Just as the “Hamilton” character Thomas Jefferson sings in the song “What’d I Miss” in the musical, some of us might’ve missed some crucial details in American politics over the summer.
But what has made the last four months so unique? Without a doubt, the past few years could go down in American history as their own era — and let it be on the record that I think these years should be named the “Unprecedented Era.”
From landmark Supreme Court rulings that overturned the law of the land, to a pandemic, to a president being impeached twice, to the first Madam Vice President (of color!), to the Democrats’ unexpected 2022 midterm victory, which bumped them to 51-49 Senate majority — well, suffice it to say, the past few years have been unpredictable.
Even so, these events of the past few years pale in comparison to what has happened in the past three months. When it comes to “unprecedented,” American politics in the summer of 2024 takes the cake — and eats it, too.
Let’s start with our first main character: former President Donald J. Trump.
Since I opened with a little bit of the musical “Hamilton,” let’s use this Founding Father as an analogy. In the 1790s, Alexander Hamilton was effectively barred from running for office because of the political enemies he had made and his involvement in a sex scandal.
200 years later, Trump has also collected some political enemies, along with his own sexual misconduct case.
The differences between the two? Trump was elected president, was convicted on 34 criminal counts related to said sex scandal as a former president and is currently the presidential nominee for the Republican party. This, of course, isn’t mentioning his other three ongoing trials.
Not even a month and a half after that verdict, Trump would be the victim of an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Our next main characters come as a pair: President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump and Biden’s first presidential debate did not end well for the incumbent president. After the unfavorable public response to his performance, Biden stepped down as the presidential nominee and fully endorsed Harris in his place.
Where we stand today is a story well-told: Harris’s presidential bid has launched her approval ratings to an unrecognizable level. As of today, the Harris-Walz ticket tops Trump-Vance in polls at +2.9 points, a far cry from a Trump-Vance +3-point lead the day before Biden dropped out of the race.
Our international focal points of the past few months are most centralized in Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East.
Wars between Ukraine and Russia, as well as Israel and Hamas have been of national concern for Americans. The nation grapples with how to best defend against a Russian aggressor up north and brokering a ceasefire between two war criminal groups in the Middle East.
The punchline of this story? Naturally, it’s to ask how any of this may have to do with us Americans.
These are the main characters — but we’re the authors, we’re the directors, and we’re including ourselves in the narrative.
Take someone like Jennifer Adkins from Idaho, whose doctors couldn’t refer her to an abortion clinic because of the state’s total ban, despite the high likelihood her pregnancy might kill her. Or like Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered as a hostage by Hamas terrorists.
At this point, it would be indefensible to say that our little world of American politics isn’t undergoing a shift. Unfathomable things are happening in the U.S., like the oldest presidential candidate in history, the stock market’s all-time highs and the highest-ever house prices.
Some of the changes the country is facing might be uncomfortable, but others definitely mark a step in the right direction. States are putting abortion on the ballot, and voters are overwhelmingly voting in favor of abortion access. We’re building more houses with affordability in mind, a direct result from the Biden administration we elected in 2020.
These changes take time. A utopia is impossible, and it certainly can’t be made in one election cycle. People who promise this, like the Green Party or RFK Jr., only serve to undermine any progress we’ve made — especially when the Green Party makes no electoral efforts outside of presenting a spoiler candidate every four years.
Vote like your life depends on it. Canvass or donate like there’s someone trying to take away our rights. Educate yourself as if books are disappearing. Because somewhere, in some rural Iowa city, or in a Florida college, they’ve already happened.
So, that’s exactly what you missed.
