The Internet Is Fun Again
This went from being the worst election cycles of my life to the best.
For the past few months (maybe close to a year, if I'm being honest), I've been avoiding political news.
I wanted nothing do to with the primary – Democratic or Republican. For the Democratic primary, I wished that Joe Biden would drop out and open the field for a new candidate. For the Republican primary, I gave up hope that the party would unearth itself from Trump's cult of personality.
I deleted news apps from my phone. An endless scroll felt bad for my mental health, especially with so much time until the election. News outlets continued to treat Trump like "any other candidate" – giving power to his rhetoric, rather than condemning him as a threat to democracy.
Almost overnight, that changed. This went from being the worst election cycle of my life to the best.
Kamala Harris makes me smile.
The narrative has completely changed. Because it's no longer about one candidate's age, which had become a solo (and disqualifying) factor for voters. It's about a strong, vibrant, funny woman who has proven she is up to the job.
Journalist Casey Newton said on the podcast Hard Fork:
All of a sudden, we could just laugh at the coconut tree. And so to me, it’s like what you’ve seen on the internet over the past week has just been this like collective exhaling, like this sense of relief, and maybe we can have a little fun over the next few months. There’s no rule that says a political campaign can’t be a little fun.
Hard Fork co-host Kevin Roose was quick to point out that memes alone can't reverse a candidate's fortune and that Trump was still favored to win the election. At the time of the recording, Biden had only endorsed Harris three days prior, so that "prediction" seemed to be another news outlet misstep (Hard Fork is produced by the New York Times). It would be impossible to know if Trump was favored in such a short period of time after Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
But here's the thing: when people like a candidate, they share their enthusiasm with other people.
I've been taking screenshots and circulating them with my friends for days.
Enthusiasm turns a "non-voter" into a "maybe voter."
Enthusiasm turns a "maybe voter" into a "likely voter."
Enthusiasm turns a "likely voter" into a "political organizer."
And political organizers are the people who get out the vote.
When people turn away from the news (as I had), it threatens voter perception of a candidate and voter turnout.
The GOP has tried to attack Harris for her humor, circulating clips of her laughing, as if it's a bad thing. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg pointed out that this tactic has fallen flat. On the podcast The Interview he said:
Actually what looks bad is to be the the doom and death march Republican Party against a Democratic Party that on one hand is very clear-eyed about the enormous stakes of this election and on the other hand, is visibly enjoying ourselves right now.
The internet has felt like a hellscape for years. The stakes were high in 2020 and the message was ominous: Trump is a threat, and we need protection from him (and Covid). We were grief-stricken and exhausted. Nothing has improved since then, with the attack on January 6th, Trump's relentless lies, and his criminal activity.
As Newton said on Hard Fork:
This feels like a moment where the internet was truly just reset, and we are like starting from scratch. And everything that was old feels new again.
I, personally, am HERE FOR IT.
97 days until the election.
Anna Burgess Yang