Our View: A Lighter Heart

We generally shy away from writing about national issues, particularly involving politics. Typically there’s enough going on locally for us to editorialize about, but the past few weeks have seen such monumental developments that, well, it’s impossible to restrain ourselves.

Most readers will be familiar with the highlights: President Biden’s poor performance in the June 28 debate; the increased calls for him to drop out of the presidential race; the assassination attempt on former President Trump; Biden’s decision last Sunday to step aside; and the rise of Vice President Kamala Harris as the anointed Democratic candidate for president.

With a bit more than 100 days until the election, the political landscape has completely changed.

Massachusetts is likely to remain a solidly blue state; President Biden beat former President Trump here by more than 30 percentage points, and we see little evidence Bay State voters will swing toward the wannabe authoritarian Republican candidate, even with Biden off the ticket.

Elsewhere, however, particularly in the handful of swing states likely to decide the Nov. 5 election, the shifting ticket has upended the race. Trump is now the oldest candidate ever nominated for president, and his likely foe is a strong woman who does not have the baggage Hillary Clinton had in the 2016 election. A former prosecutor, Harris will not suffer Trump’s juvenile slings and arrows, and will undercut Republicans’ claims that Democrats are soft on crime. As has been pointed out, Harris prosecuted fraudsters and sexual assailants, while felon Trump has been convicted of both.

Democrats’ strong push for Harris signals that the party is getting its act together and will unify in the face of the threat posed by Trump and his selected vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. Both wear their authoritarian, anti-democratic, misogynist and racist tendencies on their sleeves for all to see. The change communicates progress, acceptance and fairness as opposed to the Republicans’ relentless vision of an America in decline.

The past several days have given us hope that the country won’t go off a cliff in November. While we wrestle with significant local issues such as the housing crisis and climate change-fueled erosion, we will of course keep our eyes on the wider picture, but with a much lighter heart than we had just a week or so ago.