Is a Robbery in Progress?

The GOP is preparing to ratf*ck the 2024 election.

Well, it’s the dog days of summer again. Many years at this point in our annual journey around the sun, I post about the melancholy feeling I get as my favorite season winds down and fall approaches — the Sunday scaries writ large. I have been especially on edge in the Augusts of the past two presidential election years.

But over the past four weeks since Joe Biden made the admirable and selfless decision to stand down from the race, that summer feeling hasn’t been quite so bad. As I wrote in my last essay for this blog, the surge of enthusiasm around Kamala Harris pleasantly surprised me, and her deft handling thus far of this strange and unprecedented campaign had only lifted my spirits further. (Are we sure she’s a Democrat?) It’s now clear that America was desperate for a bold, new alternative to Trump, and when presented with one, embraced her with both arms. Team Trump is on its heels, incredibly, having no contingency plan for a change in opponent, while its dear leader continues to rage and flail, his far right flank threatens to mutiny, and talk of firing campaign managers and even replacing his running mate is in the hot August air. And the numbers reflect this dramatic change, with Kamala executing a five point swing in the national polls (when RFK Jr. and his brain worm are included) since assuming her place at…