A Sudden Absence of Cynicism
A few weeks ago, I was walking around in a body tense from constant bad news about Biden and almost non-existent coverage of either Project 2025 or Trump’s connection to it. I used to have blood pressure so low that occasionally nurses would have to record it multiple times to make sure I was actually alive, but more recently my blood pressure has risen close to hyptertension levels. I could blame genetics or I could blame politics. I’d prefer to keep the salt and skip the fascism.
Trump’s reign over the Republican party, the loss of our reproductive rights, and a Supreme Court determined to hand power only to the rich, white, and well-armed has led to this moment: we should all probably see a cardiologist. Despair is bad for our health and terrible for democracy.
Cynicism’s not great, either. And I say this as a self-identified cynic when it comes to power and politics. A cynic is an excellent bullshit-detector, which is useful in a society that values capital over humanity—and in an election cycle that prioritizes sound bites and photo opportunities over policy and authenticity. Cynicism is self-protective; it requires wary intelligence, as well as hyper vigilance—or, as a friend recently described, an exhausting state of “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
How amazing, then, to experience a sudden absence of cynicism during the 2024 election cycle. Yesterday, when the Democratic Presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, (thanks, Joe!) announced Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, I saw post after joyful post on social media, a real change from just last month, when the basic tenor was dread and I kept having to tell people I know to stop saying Trump was going to win. Harris has inspired new hope and enthusiasm about the election. Walz has made democratic Dad jokes cool. And Dad jokes, while notoriously dumb, are beautifully free of cynicism. They are pure, unadulterated, fun
We’ve been missing fun. We’ve been missing joy and hope and politicians who have a sense of humor. We need all these things to win elections up and down the ballot. We need joy and hope when we knock on doors, join a phonebank, or talk to our neighbors about why we love Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and bodily autonomy and breathing clean air.
And we’ll need joy and hope to tackle the big issues after the election. Cynicism isn’t going to end the genocide in Gaza or housing insecurity across the country or the climate crisis across the globe. Radical change requires radical imagination, which requires hope.
The New York Times is already trying to rain on our Presidential parade by claiming the Harris campaign’s honeymoon period is “winding down” (just weeks into the campaign) and that Walz has critics in Minnesota (who doesn’t?). But we must revel in the current joy, store up the hope, and imagine a future in which our kids are safe, well-fed, and not reciting the Ten Commandments before the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school.
Reserve the cynicism for the inevitable claim Trump will make: that he won the 2024 election, regardless of the outcome. And then we must come together to laugh him off the political stage forever.