So, what just happened? [View all]

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...looking forward, and that's the only direction really worth discussing right now, it's palatably clear that a weight has been lifted off of the party by the ascension of Kamala Harris as our nominee, and indeed, a barrier has been removed out of the way of millions of voters already, anyway, primed to oppose Donald Trump in the next election.

The barrier and weight has revealed itself to have been none other than our tireless warrior we originally tasked with carrying out this fight against the republican nominee.

For all of President Biden's historic accomplishments on issues and concerns like Covid recovery, economic growth, jobs, access to health insurance and care, the environment, and the entire panoply of issues and concerns that most Democrats consider necessary and vital, the president faltered in convincing many Americans that he could move from those achievements into the future.

Much of it is his age, as unfair and very likely completely wrong as that view may be; for all of Joe Biden's appeal, and there is a wealth of that on every level from political friend and foe alike; he couldn't move past his convincing argument that he had prepared the nation for the future, to the conclusion he wanted to get across that he was the best person to make that happen.

I won't belabor the point that Kamala Harris was right there the entire time for the political elite and the political class to present to us as an alternate option. It's not as if the Vice President crisscrossing the nation on behalf of the administration and her ticket, and raising the most money in the most appearances between the two on the road for most of the year, had ANY visible support from ANY political quarter to step in front of her mentor and assume the Democratic candidacy.

And I won't pretend that I could be included in those who believed that VP Harris could easily garner enough support to adopt most of Joe's delegates; at least not without a major fight in which I was certain she would lose out to a centrist, consensus ticket.

The shock over the instant erasure of votes and hopes in many quarters, including my own angst, gave way to a reflexive rationality across the board, that was, partly about the perfect solution to the unraveling of the Democratic process and our party convention, and mostly about the realization of the dynamism at the heart of the Biden administration from a contemporary political figure who has always looked and moved forward with action and determination.

You can take the Kamala Harris in 2018 advocating 'for the people' in 2018, and stand her up against the Harris of 2024 and you find an uninterrupted fight for the things she advocated for then, with a record now of realizing most of that agenda; but with the added bonus of the vision and energy to carry those interests, concerns, and ideals into the future.

God bless him, you can't take Joe Biden there, even though almost every one of us would have tried until we had no more to give to get him over the top in this election, and probably succeeded, in my view.

It's a little pollyannish, sure. Kamala Harris will be in her early 60's in a potential presidency, not exactly a new generation, and she won't exactly be posturing as a member of one, even though there certainly exists the potential that she'll be accepted to represent them.

But, she is a transitional figure who can bridge the understandings of the not so distant past struggles of America, with the promise of our new generations of Americans ahead in a way that assure she'll be right there with us.

Maybe that's more than many folks are actually thinking, but it's a sobering truth that there's only so far an octogenarian and a septuagenarian can take the nation. Hours ago, this was a contest between two aged men who could, would, work to shape the much of nation according to their own ideals, but couldn't really reside with those beyond their term.

This evening it's a sprint into the future; unbound by a valid but regressive debate about what we've accomplished, and firmly set on the future. No more tussling between political figures who are guardians and defenders of their past respective political landscapes.

What just happened?

There's an exhilarating sense that we've collectively opened a gate, stepped out with due haste and direction, and the world is wide open.