This summer in politics has been a whirlwind. Democrats went from what seemed like almost certain defeat by Donald Trump to President Joe Biden stepping aside and handing the political torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. These last eight or so weeks also included the Republican and Democratic Party’s national conventions, an assassination attempt on Trump’s life, and a disastrous first debate between Biden and Trump. Many political experts have described this series of events as being some of the most consequential and rapid in recent American history in the shortest amount of time. We are now on the eve of one of the most anticipated presidential debates in history.
As I have tried to make sense of this summer, and the Age of Trump more generally, I have kept returning to the image of a car going around a racetrack in an endless circle at high speed and unable to stop. It is loud, fast, and disorienting while at the same time being very tedious and repetitive. Those of us in this car — and watching it from the stands — are suffering from motion sickness. With the sudden change of political fortunes in these last weeks, it feels as if the American people have gotten a whiplash or a concussion.
